Conference calls and meetings via electronic messaging interface

ABSTRACT

Initiating a conference call includes receiving a conference call request message from an initiating user specifying a plurality of other users and determining an availability of the other users to receive conference call invitations. A conference call is initiated between the initiating user and one or more of the other users that are determined to be available. The availability of one or more of the other users determined to be unavailable is monitored and interaction with a conference call invitation by one or more of the other users determined to be unavailable is enabled upon their monitored availability changing from unavailable to available. The interaction with the conference call invitation by the other users is conditioned on whether the conference call is still in progress.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priorityto U.S. Nonprovisional patent Ser. No. 16/685,828, filed on Nov. 15,2019, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/617,934,filed Sep. 14, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,530,926, issued on Jan. 7,2020, which is a continuation of U.S. Nonprovisional patent Ser. No.11/298,981, filed on Dec. 12, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,358,762, issuedon Jan. 22, 2013, which claims priority to and incorporates by referenceU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/663,266, filed Mar. 21, 2005,and titled CONFERENCE CALLS AND MEETINGS VIA AN ELECTRONIC MESSAGINGINTERFACE. This application incorporates by reference U.S. applicationSer. No. 10/895,389, filed on Jul. 21, 2004, and titled CONFERENCE CALLSVIA AN INTELLIGENT CALL WAITING INTERFACE, U.S. patent application Ser.No. 10/414,167, filed Apr. 15, 2003, and titled COMMUNICATION DEVICEMONITORING, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/674,797, filed Oct. 1,2003, and titled MULTI-USER CALL WAITING, and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/320,712, filed Dec. 17, 2002, and titled CASCADED DELIVERYOF AN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This document relates to a conference call/scheduling system thatenables a caller/inviter to send conference call/meeting invitations tomultiple online users and initiate or schedule a conference call/meetingwith invited online users in accordance with their responses to theconference call/meeting invitations.

BACKGROUND

Several techniques are known for establishing conference calls betweenthree or more parties. For example, a host may call each party to theconference and individually bridge each called party onto the conferencecall. Alternatively, a “dial-in” telephone number with associated accesscode may be used to join all parties at a common bridge. Each partydials into the bridge, eliminating the need for the host to call eachparty individually. In yet another technique, a host calls a centralnumber and specifies the participants to the conference call. Thenetwork then places outbound calls to each of the specifiedparticipants, and the participants join the conference call by answeringthe outbound calls.

SUMMARY

In one general aspect, initiating a conference call includes receiving aconference call request message from an initiating user specifying aplurality of other users and determining an availability of the otherusers to receive conference call invitations. A conference call isinitiated between the initiating user and one or more of the other usersthat are determined to be available. The availability of one or more ofthe other users determined to be unavailable is monitored andinteraction with a conference call invitation by one or more of theother users determined to be unavailable is enabled upon their monitoredavailability changing from unavailable to available. The interactionwith the conference call invitation by the other users is conditioned onwhether the conference call is still in progress.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Forexample, a meeting response message that specifies the determinedavailability may be sent to the initiating user. The initiating user mayspecify one or more of the other available users that will receiveconference call invitations and/or may specify one or more of the otherunavailable users whose availability will be monitored.

The one or more other previously unavailable users to which are sentconference call invitations may be allowed to join the conference callin progress. The conference call invitation may be sent automatically orin response to a request by the initiating user.

Enabling interaction with a conference call invitation by one or more ofthe other users may include sending a conference call invitation to oneor more of the other users upon their monitored availability changingfrom unavailable to available. Monitoring the availability of one ormore of the other users may include monitoring the online presence ofone or more of the other users, monitoring the availability of atelecommunication device owned or operated by one or more of the otherusers, and/or monitoring the login status of one or more of the otherusers.

In another general aspect, scheduling a meeting includes receiving ameeting request from an initiating user. The meeting request specifiestwo or more other users. The availability of the two or more other usersto receive meeting scheduling invitations is monitored and anotification message is sent to the initiating user upon the monitoredavailability indicating that the two or more other users areconcurrently available.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Forexample, the meeting may include a meeting between the initiating userand two or more of the other users at a physical location. The meetingmay include a conference call and the meeting scheduling invitations mayinclude conference call scheduling invitations. The notification messagemay be structured and arranged to notify the initiating user that thetwo or more other users are concurrently available.

A conference call may be initiated between the initiating user and thetwo or more other users upon the two or more other users becomingconcurrently available. The meeting scheduling invitations may be sentto the two or more other users upon the two or more other users becomingconcurrently available. The meeting scheduling invitations may be sentautomatically or in response to a request by the initiating user.

Monitoring the availability of one or more of the other users mayinclude monitoring the online presence of one or more of the otherusers, monitoring the availability of a telecommunication device ownedor operated by one or more of the other users, and/or monitoring thelogin status of one or more of the other users.

In another general aspect, scheduling a multiple party meeting includesreceiving a meeting request message from an initiating user. The meetingrequest message specifies one or more other potential meetingparticipants. Meeting setup data is accessed, and a first proposedmeeting date is determined based on the meeting request and the meetingsetup data. The other potential meeting participants perceive firstelectronic scheduling invitations that include the first proposedmeeting date. User availability data is accessed for the one or moreother potential meeting participants in response to the first electronicscheduling invitations. The user availability data indicates that atleast one of the other potential meeting participants is unavailable tomeet at the first proposed meeting date. A second proposed meeting dateis determined based on the meeting setup data and the user availabilitydata.

Implementations may include one or more of the following features. Forexample, the meeting setup data may include a topic or a location of themeeting. The meeting setup data may include the first proposed meetingdate and a meeting duration.

The first proposed meeting date may include a first proposed meeting dayand a first proposed meeting start time and the second proposed meetingdate may include a second proposed meeting day and a second proposedmeeting start time. The second proposed meeting day may be the same dayas the first proposed meeting day or may be a different day. The meetingsetup data may specify a range of potential meeting start times on thefirst proposed meeting day.

The meeting setup data may include preferences specified by theinitiating user that indicate a preference that the start time of themeeting be as early as possible on the first proposed meeting day or apreference that the start time of the meeting be as late as possible onthe first proposed meeting day. A second proposed meeting start time maybe determined by identifying a start time in the range of potentialmeeting start times during which the one or more other potential meetingparticipants have not indicate unavailability to participate in themeeting. The second proposed meeting start time may be determined byidentifying multiple potential start times in the range of potentialmeeting start times during which one or more other potential meetingparticipants have not indicated unavailability to participate in themeeting and identifying the second proposed meeting start time fromamong the potential start times based on the preferences specified bythe initiating user.

The other potential meeting participants may perceive second electronicscheduling invitations that include the second proposed meeting date.Additional user availability data may be accessed for the one or moreother potential meeting participants in response to the secondelectronic scheduling invitations. Accessing the user availability datamay include receiving the user availability data from the one or moreother potential meeting participants. The user availability data may beupdated with the additional user availability data. A meeting scheduleconfirmation message may be sent to the initiating user and to the oneor more other potential meeting participants conditioned on whether theupdated user availability data indicates that one or more otherpotential meeting participants are available to meet at the secondproposed meeting date.

The meeting may include a conference call and the first schedulinginvitations may include first conference call scheduling invitations.Accessing user availability data may include receiving user availabilitydata from the one or more other potential meeting participants.Accessing user availability data may include receiving user availabilitydata specified manually by the one or more other potential meetingparticipants in response to the first electronic scheduling invitation.Accessing user availability data may include accessing user availabilitydata associated with a first calendar application and accessing useravailability data associated with a second calendar application that isdifferent from the first calendar application.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A and 1B are block diagrams illustrating a communications systemfor initiating a conference call using an electronic messaginginterface.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are flow charts illustrating a process for initiating aconference call using an electronic messaging interface.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a communications system forinitiating a conference call using an electronic messaging interface.

FIGS. 4A-4C are flow charts illustrating a process for initiating aconference call using an electronic messaging interface.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate an example of a user interface presented to auser upon receipt of a call notification message.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userupon receipt of an updated call notification message.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a process for initiating aconference call using an electronic messaging interface.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userthat initiates a conference call.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userupon the user accepting a conference call invitation.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userupon the user rejecting a conference call invitation.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userupon receipt of a call notification message.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userupon receipt of an updated call notification message.

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userthat enable the user to send a message to other conference callinvitees.

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to a userthat initiates a conference call.

FIGS. 15A-15C are flow charts illustrating a process for initiating aconference call using an electronic messaging interface that provides aninitiating user with enhanced flexibility in sending out conference callinvitations to potential call recipients that are not currently online.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a user interface that presents to theuser the identities of the call recipients that are available andunavailable to receive conference call invitations and enables userselection of call recipient availability options.

FIGS. 17A-17D are flow charts illustrating a process for scheduling aconference call or meeting using an electronic messaging system.

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of a user interface that enables the userto select from among a set of meeting/call scheduling setup options.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a user interface similar to the oneshown in FIG. 16 but used to schedule a conference call or meetingrather than to initiate a conference call.

FIG. 20 illustrates an example of a user interface presented to aninvitee to enable the invitee to respond to a meeting/call schedulinginvitation.

FIG. 21 illustrates an example a user interface presented to a user toinform the user of the successful scheduling of a meeting/call.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example of a user interface that informs aninviter that a meeting/call could not be scheduled during a proposedday.

FIG. 23 illustrates an example of a user interface that shows the statusof responses to meeting/call scheduling invitations.

FIG. 24A-24F are graphical representations of user availability data.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one exemplary implementation, a communications system for initiatinga conference call or scheduling a conference call or meeting using anelectronic messaging interface includes a caller telephone device,multiple call recipient telephone devices and call recipient computersystems, a telephone network, an intelligent conference call processingsystem (ICCPS), a data network, and an online service provider system.

To initiate a conference call, for example, the caller telephone deviceis used by a caller to place a call over the telephone network to theICCPS, which enables the caller to identify a community of interest,which includes a group of potential call recipients who share a commoninterest, trait, or characteristic or who are otherwise grouped togetheras an entity with which a caller may desire to communicate in aconference call. The ICCPS identifies the user identities associatedwith the members of the community of interest, requests the onlinepresence of those user identities from the online service providersystem, and determines their availability to receive electronic callinvitations. For instance, where user identities are user identifiers,such as, for example, screen names, an Instant Messaging system may beused to determine the online status of each.

The ICCPS informs the caller of which members of the community ofinterest are available and enables the caller to select from among a setof options that may include, for example: (1) proceed with the call bysending electronic call invitations to only those members that areavailable to receive electronic call invitations; (2) proceed with thecall by sending electronic call invitations to the members that areavailable and automatically sending electronic call invitations tounavailable members as they become available; (3) not proceed with thecall but inform the caller when all members become concurrentlyavailable; (4) not proceed with the call but proceed with the callautomatically conditioned on all members being concurrently available;(5) cancel the call; and (6) select another community of interest.Availability may be indicated with reference to online presence, loginstatus with respect to a particular application or access service, andavailability of telecom devices owned/operational by a user, among otherindicators or combination thereof. The ICCPS coordinates the initiationof the conference call in accordance with the caller's option selection.

To schedule a conference call or meeting, for example, an inviter usesthe caller telephone device (e.g., a caller computer system) to accessthe ICCPS. The ICCPS prompts the inviter to input meeting/callscheduling setup data. The meeting/call scheduling setup data mayinclude a meeting/call topic, a community of interest, an initialproposed day and start time for the meeting/call, a duration of themeeting/call, a start time scheduling window (i.e., a range of potentialstart times on the initial proposed day), and a start time preference(e.g., a preference to schedule the meeting/call as early as possible inthe day or as late as possible in the day). After the inviter providesthe meeting/call scheduling setup data, the ICCPS sends electronicmeeting/call scheduling invitations to members in the community ofinterest. The electronic meeting/call scheduling invitations prompt themembers to indicate their availability to meet or participate in a callat the initial proposed day and start time. The members respond to theinvitations by providing the ICCPS with availability data that indicatetheir availability to participate in the meeting/call at the initialproposed day and start time for the meeting/call duration. Based on thisavailability data, the ICCPS determines whether the meeting or call maybe scheduled at the initial proposed day and start time.

If at least one of the members is indicated as available to meet orparticipate in a call at the initial proposed day and start time, theICCPS determines a second proposed start time on the initial proposedday based on the received member availability data and the invitermeeting/call scheduling data. Specifically, the ICCPS determines thesecond proposed start time by using the availability data to identifyone or more potential start times in the start time window during whichall members would be available or potentially available to participatein the meeting/call. If more than one potential start time isidentified, the ICCPS chooses the second proposed start time to be theearliest or latest potential start time in accordance with inviterpreferences.

The ICCPS automatically sends out electronic meeting/call schedulinginvitations to the members prompting them to indicate their availabilityto meet or participate in a call at the second proposed start time. Themembers respond to the electronic meeting/call scheduling invitations byproviding additional member availability data. The ICCPS updates thestored availability data in accordance with the member responses.

If all of the members indicate that they are available to meet orparticipate in a call at the second proposed start time on the initialproposed day for the duration of the meeting/call, the ICCPS sends outelectronic meeting/call schedule confirmation messages to the membersinforming them that the meeting/call has been successfully scheduled atthe second start time on the initial proposed day. If, however, at leastone of the members indicates unavailability to meet or participate in acall at the second proposed start time on the initial proposed day forthe duration of the meeting/call, the ICCPS determines a third proposedstart time on the initial proposed day based on the updated memberavailability data and the meeting/call scheduling data.

In this manner, the ICCPS proceeds to schedule the meeting/call byiteratively determining an appropriate start time based on dynamicallyupdated member availability data received in response to electronicmeeting/call scheduling invitations. If, however, the memberavailability data indicates that a meeting/call cannot be successfullyscheduled on the initial proposed day, the ICCPS, for example, mayprompt the inviter to submit a second proposed day and start time, andthe iterative scheduling process continues as necessary to determine astart time for the meeting/call on the second proposed day. Otherimplementations are described in more detail below.

Referring to FIG. 1A, one implementation of a communications system forinitiating a conference call using an electronic messaging interface isidentified at reference numeral 100. The communications system 100 ofFIG. 1A includes a caller telephone device 110, a first call recipienttelephone 115, a second call recipient telephone 120, a telephonenetwork 130, an intelligent conference call processing system (ICCPS)140, a data network 150, an online service provider system 160, a firstcall recipient computer system 165, and a second call recipient computersystem 170. As such, FIG. 1A shows equipment that may be used by tworepresentative call recipients, including their associated telephones115 and 120 and computer systems 165 and 170. The communications system100, however, may include any number of call recipients.

The caller telephone device 110 is used by a caller to place a call tothe ICCPS 140 over the telephone network 130. The caller telephonedevice 110, the first call recipient telephone 115, and the second callrecipient telephone 120 may be landline telephones that allowcommunications over the telephone network 130. In anotherimplementation, any one or more of the call recipient telephone devices115, 120 and the caller telephone device 110 may be a cellular telephoneor a mobile personal digital assistant (PDA) with embedded cellulartelephone technology. In yet another implementation, the call recipienttelephone devices 115, 120 and the call recipient computer systems 165,170 are respectively integrated into single computer systems capable ofreceiving calls over the telephone network 130 and receiving data overthe data network 150. As shown in FIG. 1B, any one or more of the callrecipient telephone devices 115, 120, and the caller telephone device110 may be data devices that communicate with the ICCPS 140 over thenetwork 150 using a voice communications protocol such as, for example,voice-over-IP.

The telephone network 130 is configured to enable direct or indirectvoice communications between the caller telephone device 110, the callrecipient telephone devices 115, 120, and the ICCPS 140. When a call isplaced by the caller telephone device 110 to the ICCPS 140, thetelephone network 130 is configured to send call-related information tothe ICCPS 140 over a signaling channel. The call-related informationincludes call origin and call destination information. The call origininformation may include the direct number of the caller telephone device110 and the time and date when the call was initiated. The calldestination information may include the direct number of the ICCPS 140,which, in some implementations, is associated with a specific communityof interest. The call origin information may be delivered, for example,through a service known as Automatic Number Identification (ANI), andthe call destination information may be delivered, for example, througha service known as Dialed Number Identification Service (DNIS).

The telephone network 130 may be of any type including, for example, thepublic switched telephone network (PSTN), international networks or acombination of networks. For example, the telephone network 130 mayinclude the AT&T interexchange (IXC) network and/or central offices oflocal exchange carriers (LECs). The telephone network 130 is typicallycircuit-switched.

The ICCPS 140 is a computer system configured to receive calls from thecaller telephone device 110 and enable the caller to identify acommunity of interest. Once a community of interest is identified, theICCPS 140 is configured to send call notification messages to potentialcall recipients in the community of interest that are online orotherwise available to receive call notification messages and initiate aconference call between the caller and those potential call recipientsthat are interested in participating in the conference call.

A community of interest is a group of potential call recipients thatshare a common interest, trait, or characteristic or are otherwisegrouped together as an entity with which a caller may desire tocommunicate in a conference call. For example, the community of interestmay be a community consisting of members of a club (e.g., hunting club,skiing club, and reading club), members of an organization (e.g.,National Rifle Association members in Washtenaw County, church members,and Ford employees), individuals with a common goal or cause (e.g.,supporters of a presidential candidate, pro-life activists, andcoworkers working on a cost-cutting initiative), individuals with acommon characteristic (e.g., recovering drug addicts, individualssuffering from breast cancer, Boston Red Sox Fans, supervisors in anorganization, students in Mr. Krupka's physics class, and managingpartners in a law firm), or members that are grouped together for anyother arbitrary reason (e.g., on the caller's buddy list).

A community of interest may be defined globally for all callers and/ormay be tailored or personalized to a specific caller. For example, thecaller may define one or more personalized communities of interestduring service registration. Examples of caller-defined communities ofinterest include a community consisting of the caller's family, acommunity consisting of the caller's coworkers, a community consistingof the caller's friends, and a community consisting of the members of apersonal contact list of the caller and/or the caller's InstantMessaging buddy list or some subgroup thereof (e.g., a buddy or contactgroup). Callers or other individuals also may subscribe to differentglobally defined communities of interest during service registration(e.g., weekly poetry reading and discussion, daily seminar, and advancedcalculus course).

If a conference call is already in progress for the community ofinterest specified by the caller when the caller calls in, the callermay select to or automatically be added to the conference call if thecaller is a member of that community of interest. A determination ofwhether the caller is a member of the community of interest may be doneas part of the caller validation process or based on collectedcaller-related information (e.g., ANI information). If a caller is not amember of the community of interest, the caller typically will not beallowed to join the conference call in progress. In otherimplementations, a caller will only be allowed to initiate a conferencecall with a community of interest if that caller is a member of thecommunity of interest.

The caller may identify the community of interest to the ICCPS 140 bycalling a specific number that the ICCPS 140 associates with aparticular community of interest. For example, the caller may call“1-800-Go Drows” to setup a conference call with the community leadersof the Drows suburbs in Pewaukee, Wis. Additionally or alternatively,the caller may call a general number and be prompted by the ICCPS 140 toinput or otherwise specify the community of interest.

The caller also may manually specify each member in a community ofinterest. For example, the caller telephone device 110 may provide avisual display of potential call recipients and enable the caller toselect or otherwise input the members in the particular community. Thecaller also may input a name for the manually created community ofinterest or, alternatively, a default name may be selected automatically(e.g., “manually created group”). The caller telephone device 110 mayinclude or be integrated within or operate as a PDA or general purposecomputer that stores locally the user identities of potential callrecipients in, for example, an address book or communicates with theICCPS 140 to receive the user identities of potential call recipients.Additionally or alternatively, the address book may reside in a remotehost-based data store and be accessible to the telephone 110 and/or beaccessible to or be a part of the ICCPS 140. In another implementation,the ICCPS 140 may send to the caller telephone device 110 only the useridentities that are determined to be online or may send all useridentities but may flag or otherwise denote the user identities that areonline. The visual display also may allow the caller to send InstantMessages to the potential call recipients that are online and mayinitiate a conference call if all of the potential call recipientsindicate availability to participate in the conference call.

After a community of interest has been identified, the ICCPS 140determines the user identities of the members within the community ofinterest. The ICCPS 140 may store the user identities in a data storeor, additionally or alternatively, may query one or more externalsystems to retrieve the user identities. Rather than or in addition totracking presence information directly, the ICCPS 140 queries one (ormore) external online service provider systems 160 for presenceinformation corresponding to each user identity. Upon receiving thepresence information from the online service provider system(s) 160, theICCPS 140 generates a call notification message for each user identitythat is determined to be online. The ICCPS 140 sends or publishes thecall notification messages to the online service provider system(s) 160which, in turn, send the call notification messages to the recipients.The call recipient computer systems 165, 170 receive the callnotification messages from the online service provider system(s) 160 andenable the potential call recipients to perceive the call notificationmessages as, for example, pop-up windows in a visual display.

A call notification message (or electronic conference call invitation)typically includes the identity of the caller that initiated theconference call (determined based on, for example, Automatic NumberIdentification (ANI) information), an identifier for the community ofinterest designated by the caller, a subject matter or topic for theconference call (e.g., “The hottest places to hunt in Wisconsin—Adiscussion by famed hunter Bob Rayburn”), the expected duration of theconference call (e.g., 20 minutes), and a set of options that may beselected by the potential call recipient to indicate whether and how thepotential call recipient will participate in the conference call and, insome implementations, how the potential call recipient wishes to connectto the ICCPS 140 (e.g., via a traditional telephone over the telephonenetwork 130 or via a data telephone or computer over the data network150). The ICCPS 140 is configured to receive, over the data network 150and through the online service provider system(s) 160, the optionsselected by the potential call recipients in response to the callnotification messages. The ICCPS 140 receives option selections atdifferent times dependent on the time it takes for each individualpotential call recipient to select from among the options presented inthe call notification message. After the ICCPS 140 receives optionselections from all of the potential call recipients or, additionally oralternatively, after a predetermined interval of time (e.g., 2 minutes),the ICCPS 140 processes the option selections. In anotherimplementation, the ICCPS 140 processes the option selections as theyare received.

When the ICCPS 140 receives an option selection from a potential callrecipient, the ICCPS 140 may send an update call notification message tothe call recipient computer systems 165, 170 associated with the otherpotential call recipients indicating the option selected by thatpotential call recipient. The update call notification message updatesthe call notification message by, for example, adding a status sectionto the call notification pop-up window or by adding a conference callparticipant status pop-up window that visually displays the conferencecall participation option selected by each call recipient. As eachoption selection is received by the ICCPS 140, another updated callnotification message is sent to the potential call recipients and all ofthe potential call recipients (including those that have alreadyresponded) are able to see in the conference call participant statuswindow or in the status section of the call notification window theresponses already submitted by the other potential call recipients. If apotential call recipient has inputted a reason or message in responseto, for example, selecting the option to not participate in the call,the status section of the call notification window or the callparticipant status window may display that message to all of thepotential call recipients. The call participant status window also mayoptionally include a message informing nonparticipating potential callrecipients whether the conference call is in progress and may include alink selectable by the non-participating potential call recipients toaccess or otherwise “jump-in” to the call when they become available toparticipate. The link is typically available only while the conferencecall is in progress.

The ICCPS 140 may periodically revise the conference call participantstatus window or the status section of the call notification window toreflect the latest response status. The ICCPS 140 also may enablepotential call recipients to opt-out of receiving update callnotification messages, for a particular call or altogether. FIG. 6 showsan example of a user interface 600 including a conference callparticipant status window.

The ICCPS 140 processes the conference call connection options toestablish bi-directional voice communication connections with the callrecipients. If a call recipient has selected to connect to theconference call over the telephone network 130 using a traditionaltelephone connection, the ICCPS 140 identifies a direct number of atelephone associated with the user identity of the call recipient by,for example, accessing an account record in a configuration data store,and uses the direct number to place an outbound telephone call to thecall recipient telephone 115, 120. If the direct number of the telephoneassociated with the user identity is busy or not answered, the ICCPS 140is configured to send an error message to the call recipient computersystem 165, 170 associated with that user. The error message may allowthe call recipient to enter a new number to which the outbound call maybe directed, or additionally or alternatively, to select to connect tothe ICCPS 140 using the call recipient computer system 165, 170 (e.g.,via Voice-over-IP).

If a call recipient has selected to connect to the conference call overthe data network 150 using the call recipient computer system 165, 170,the ICCPS 140 employs a telephony gateway to establish a bi-directionalaudio channel between the telephony gateway and the call recipientcomputer system 165, 170 over the data network 150. The telephonygateway may be, for example, an Internet telephony gateway using avoice-over-IP communications protocol.

When the call recipient telephone devices 115, 120 and/or call recipientcomputer systems 165, 170 are connected to the ICCPS 140 for voicecommunications, the ICCPS 140 initiates a conference call in accordancewith the conference call participation options selected by eachparticipant. For example, if a participant desires to be a listener, theICCPS 140 changes the bi-directional voice path or audio channel to aunidirectional voice path or audio channel. The unidirectional voicepath or audio channel allows the call recipient to receive audio dataand thus listen to the conference call but does not allow the callrecipient to send audio data and thus contribute vocally to theconference call.

The data network 150 may be any type of network that carries dataincluding, for example, the Internet, an intranet or any combination ofdata bearing networks. The data network 150 may include one or morewired or wireless networks (e.g., General Packet Radio Networks). Thedata network 150 may be, for example, a data network using InternetProtocol (IP). The term “data” as used herein is representation ofinformation in a formalized manner suitable for communication,interpretation or processing. This information can include, for example,text, audio, image, video, and/or multimedia.

In some implementations, the data network 150 and the telephone network130 are implemented as a single or otherwise integrated communication'snetwork configured to enable voice communications between the callertelephone device 110, the call recipient telephone devices 115, 120, andthe ICCPS 140, and to enable communications between the ICCPS 140, theonline service provider system 160, and the call recipient computersystems 165, 170,

The online service provider system 160 is a computer system configuredto provide online data communications services to users, detect onlinepresence of a user of the call recipient computer system 165, 170,receive a call notification message from the ICCPS 140, generate andsend the format data along with the call notification message to thecall recipient computer system 165, 170, and send option selections fromthe call recipient computer system 165, 170 to the ICCPS 140. The onlinedata communications services may include for example, e-mail services,Instant Messaging services, Internet access, and/or access to onlinecontent.

The online service provider system 160 may, for example, detect onlinepresence of a user of the call recipient computer system 165, 170 byleveraging an Instant Messaging system, or by performing presencedetection in a manner similar to that used to detect presence in anInstant Messaging system and/or in a manner similar to that disclosed inapplication Ser. No. 10/414,167, hereby incorporated by reference in itsentirety (in which client-side communication device monitors are used).The online service provider system 160 is also configured to receive acall notification message from the ICCPS 140, generate format data thatis used to format the call notification messages for presentation on thecall recipient computer system 165,170, and send the call notificationmessages to the call recipient computer system 165, 170 in near realtime.

The format data may vary based on device type. For example, with limitedcapabilities, the format data for a PDA may enable the PDA to limit thecall notification message to a visual indication of the incoming call(e.g., illumination of a light and a graphical display of a call iconand the caller telephone device direct number or identity proxy thereof)and may further limit the conference call options that are presented tothe user to a subset of the full suite of options (e.g., the option toparticipate in the call or not to participate in the call). In contrast,the format data sent to a home computer may enable the home computer toprovide, for example, an audio and visual indication of the call and todisplay full caller identity information including address, returntelephone number, and other information about the caller accessiblebased on the caller telephone device number. The format data sent to thehome computer also may enable the home computer to present to the user asignificantly larger number of call handling options (e.g., the optionto actively participate, to listen, to not participate, to connect overthe telephone network, to connect over the data network, and to sendaudio or text messages to other participants).

The online service provider system 160 is also configured to transmit,in near real time, the option selection from the call recipient computersystem 165, 170 to the ICCPS 140. Near real time transmission of theoption selection is important because transmission delays can result ina delay in initiating the conference call. Accordingly, the onlineservice provider system 160 may be configured to avoid or altogetherprohibit queuing call notification messages or option selections orfurther processing the call notification messages or option selectionsin any way that increases transmission delay. The online serviceprovider system 160 may be configured to provide this functionality in amanner similar to that used by Instant Messaging systems, or even toleverage Instant Messaging systems to enable transmission and receipt ofinstant messages in near real time.

The call recipient computer systems 165, 170 are configured to receivecall notification messages and format data from the online serviceprovider system 160, process the call notification messages inaccordance with the format data to enable a user to perceive the callnotification message, accept user selection of options offered by thecall notification messages, and send the option selection to the onlineservice provider system 160. The call recipient computer systems 165,170 each include a device 165A, 170A capable of executing instructionsunder the command of a controller 165B, 170B. The device 165A, 170A maybe a general purpose computer, such as a workstation or a personalcomputer, a PDA, a special purpose computer, an intelligent mobiletelephone, a pager, or a set top box.

The controller 165B, 170B commands and directs communications betweenthe device 165A, 170A of the call recipient computer system 165, 170 andthe online service provider system 160. The controller 165B, 170B mayinclude one or more software or hardware applications that enabledigital communications to be received from the online service providersystem 160. For example, the controller 165B, 170B may be a modifiedInstant Messaging application configured to receive notificationmessages and send option selections in a manner similar to that used toreceive instant messages and send instant messages. The device 165A,170A is connected to the controller 165B, 170B by a wired, wireless orvirtual (i.e., when the controller is software running on the device)data pathway 165C, 170C capable of delivering data.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show a process 200 for initiating a conference callusing an electronic messaging interface. For convenience, particularcomponents described with respect to FIG. 1A are referenced asperforming the process 200. However, similar methodologies may beapplied in other implementations where different components are used todefine the structure of the system, or where the functionality isdistributed differently among the components shown by FIG. 1A.

The user of the caller telephone device 110 calls the ICCPS 140 (202).The ICCPS 140 accepts the call, validates the caller by, for example,prompting the caller for a caller identity and a password, and receivescall-related information (204). Once the caller is validated, the ICCPS140 prompts the caller to input a topic for the conference call and anexpected conference call duration and prompts the caller to select acommunity of interest (206). In another implementation, the telephonenumber used to call the ICCPS 140 determines the community of interestand, therefore, selection of the community of interest is not necessary.The caller may be prompted to select a community of interest from a listof communities presented to the caller as audio or, alternatively, thecaller may select the community of interest from a textual list sent tothe caller telephone device 110 over the data network 130 (i.e., thisimplementation assumes that the caller telephone device 110 has datacommunication capabilities to receive and send data over the datanetwork 150). The ICCPS 140 may access a configuration data store toretrieve community configuration data that is used to identify the setof communities of interest from which a given caller may select. Thecommunities of interest may include communities available globally andpersonalized communities available only to the caller. The ICCPS 140 mayuse the call-related information to identify the caller and to access apersonalized set of communities of interest tailored to or otherwisesetup for that particular caller.

Once the caller has selected a community of interest, the ICCPS 140identifies user identities associated with the selected community ofinterest and sends a request for the online status of the useridentities (208). The online service provider system 160 receives therequest for the online status of the user identities (210) and accessesthe online status of the user identities (212). The online status of theuser identities may be stored, for example, in a presence data storethat is periodically updated in real-time in a manner similar to thatused in Instant Messaging systems to reflect activity of a user at thecall recipient computer system 165, 170. The online service providersystem 160 sends the online status of the user identities to the ICCPS140 (214).

The ICCPS 140 receives the online status of the user identities from theonline service provider system 160 (216). If no user identities areonline, the ICCPS 140 informs the caller through an audio message thatno users are available to join the conference call and disconnects thecall or prompts the caller for another community of interest (notshown). If one or more user identities are online, the ICCPS 140generates and sends call notification messages addressed to the useridentities that are online (i.e., online user identities) (218). Thecall notification messages typically are sent out in parallel by theICCPS 140 to minimize transmission delays and the arrival timedifference between call recipient computer systems 165, 170.

The online service provider system 160 receives the call notificationmessages for each online user identity (220) and sends the callnotification messages along with format data to call recipient computersystems 165, 170 corresponding to the online identities (222). Thereceiving of the call notification messages and sending of the callnotification messages and format data is performed in real time. Thecall notification messages typically are sent out in parallel by theonline service provider system 160 to minimize transmission delays andthe arrival time difference between call recipient computer systems 165,170.

Each call recipient computer system 165, 170 receives the callnotification message and format data (224) and enables a user toperceive the call notification message (226). In one implementation, thecall recipient computer system 165, 170 enables users to perceive thecall notification message as a pop-up window or dialog box that appearson a visual display of the call recipient computer system 165, 170. FIG.5A shows an example of a user interface 500 depicting a callnotification message.

The call recipient computer system 165, 170 enables a user to select anoption offered in the call notification message prior to expiration of apredetermined time interval (e.g., two minutes) (228). The callrecipient computer system 165, 170 sends the option selection to theonline service provider system 160 (230).

The online service provider system 160 receives the option selection(232) and sends the option selection to the ICCPS 140 (234), and does soin real time. The ICCPS 140 receives the option selection (236). TheICCPS 140 generates an updated call notification message for each onlineidentity and sends the updated call notification messages to the onlineservice provider system 160 (238). The online service provider system160 receives the updated call notification messages (240) and sends theupdated call notification messages to the corresponding call recipientcomputer systems 165, 170 (242).

Each call recipient computer system 165, 170 receives an updated callnotification message (244) and enables a user to perceive the updatedcall notification message (246). In one implementation, the updated callnotification message is presented to users as a dialog box or pop-upwindow that includes a status section visually displaying the conferencecall participation option selected by that potential call recipient andthe options selected by any other potential call recipients thatpreviously sent option selections to the ICCPS 140. The selected optionis shown along with a user identifier corresponding to the potentialcall recipient from which the selected option was received. The statussection also may include a message inputted by the potential callrecipient in response to the notification message. For example, themessage may indicate why the potential call recipient has chosen not toparticipate in the conference call. FIG. 6 shows an example of a userinterface 600 including a conference call participant status window.

In another implementation, the status presented in the updated callnotification message does not identify specific potential callrecipients but rather presents a total number of potential callrecipients that have responded to the call notification message bysending an option selection and the total number of potential callrecipients that have not responded. The total number of potential callrecipients that have responded may further be subdivided into the numberof potential call recipients that have chosen to participate actively,participate as a listener, and not participate.

In yet another implementation, the updated call notification messagealso may be sent to the caller that initiated the conference call. Theupdated call notification message may be sent to a caller computersystem (not shown) having similar characteristics as the call recipientcomputer systems 165, 170 or, additionally or alternatively, the updatedcall notification message may be sent to the caller telephone device 110over the data network 150 (i.e., this implementation assumes that thecaller telephone device 110 has data communication capabilities toreceive and send data over the data network 150) or, alternatively, maybe sent as an audio message over the telephone network 130. The audiomessage may inform the caller of the current participation status of thepotential call recipients.

If the ICCPS 140 does not receive an option selection within apredetermined time interval from any of the call recipient computersystems 165, 170 that received call notification messages (e.g., at224), the ICCPS 140 stops accepting option selections and identifies theparticipants to the conference call based on the already received optionselections (248). The ICCPS 140 identifies the participants by analyzingthe conference call participation option selections received from thepotential call recipients.

The ICCPS 140 determines whether only one potential call recipientdesires to participate in the conference call (250). If only onepotential call recipient desires to participate in the conference call,the ICCPS 140 sends an audio message to the caller telephone device 110informing the caller that only one participant wishes to join and thatthe call will be forwarded to the call recipient. If the conference callconnection options associated with that call recipient indicate that thecall recipient wishes to use the call recipient telephone 115, 120 toconnect to the conference call over the telephone network 130, the ICCPS140 forwards the call to the call recipient telephone 115, 120 byproviding the telephone network 130 with the appropriate signalinginformation (252). If the conference call connection options associatedwith that call recipient indicate that the call recipient wishes to usethe call recipient computer system 165, 170 to connect to the conferencecall over the data network 140, the ICCPS 140 establishes abi-directional audio channel with the call recipient computer system165, 170 and employs a telephony gateway to enable communicationexchanges between the caller telephone device 110 and the call recipientcomputer system 165, 170 (not shown).

The ICCPS 140 determines whether more than one potential call recipientwishes to participate in the conference call (254). If more than onepotential call recipient wishes to participate in the conference call,the ICCPS 140 establishes a bi-directional (or unidirectional, if thepotential call recipient decides to listen to rather than to activelyparticipate in the conference call) voice communications connection witheach potential call recipient in accordance with their conference callconnection option selection. Accordingly, for a potential call recipientthat wishes to establish a communications connection over the telephonenetwork 130 using the call recipient telephone 115, 120, the ICCPS 140identifies a direct number associated with the potential call recipientand uses the direct number to place an outbound call to the callrecipient telephone 115, 120 (258). When the call recipient accepts thecall, the communications connection is setup (260). If the callrecipient does not accept the call or is otherwise unavailable toreceive the call (e.g., the line is busy), the ICCPS sends an errormessage to the corresponding call recipient computer system 165, 170.For a potential call recipient that wishes to establish a communicationsconnection over the data network 150 using the call recipient computersystem 165, 170, the ICCPS 140 employs a telephony gateway to establisha bi-directional audio channel with the call recipient computer system165, 170 (not shown). Once all of the connections between the ICCPS 140and the call recipients have been setup, the ICCPS 140 launches theconference call (262). In another implementation, the ICCPS 140 maylaunch the conference call as soon as one connection is setup betweenthe ICCPS 140 and a call recipient. The ICCPS 140 enables eachsubsequent call recipient to access the call while the call is inprogress by setting up an associated connection upon the subsequent callrecipient selecting to participate in the call.

If no potential call recipients wish to participate in the conferencecall, the ICCPS 140 sends an audio message to the caller telephonedevice 110 indicating that no participants wish to join in theconference call. After sending or playing the audio message, the ICCPS140 disconnects the call or enables the caller to select anothercommunity of interest (256).

FIG. 3 shows one exemplary implementation 300 of the communicationssystem 100 of FIG. 1A configured to initiate a conference call using anelectronic messaging interface. The communications system 300 includes acaller telephone device 310, a first call recipient telephone 315, asecond call recipient telephone 320, the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN) 330, an ICCPS 340, the Internet 350, an online serviceprovider system 360, a first call recipient computer system 365, and asecond call recipient computer system 370. Each call recipient computersystem 365, 370 includes a device 365A, 370A that communicates with acontroller 365B, 370B over a data pathway 365C, 370C. Examples of eachelement within the communications system 300 of FIG. 3 are describedbroadly above with respect to FIG. 1A. In particular, the callertelephone device 310, the call recipient telephone devices 315, 320, thePSTN 330, the Internet 350, and the call recipient computer systems 365,370 typically have attributes comparable to those described with respectto the caller telephone device 110, the call recipient telephone devices115, 120, the telephone network 130, the data network 150, and the callrecipient computer systems 165, 170 of FIG. 1A, respectively. Likewise,the ICCPS 340 and the online service provider system 360 typically haveattributes comparable to and illustrate one possible implementation ofthe ICCPS 140 and the online service provider system 160 of FIG. 1A.FIG. 3 shows two representative call recipients and their associatedtelephones 315 and 320 and computer systems 365 and 370. Thecommunications system 300, however, may include any number of callrecipients.

The ICCPS 340 includes an interactive voice response system (IVRS) 342,a message transfer point 344, a configuration data store 346, aconference call system 348, and an Internet telephony gateway 349. Theonline service provider system 360 includes a presence server 362 and analerts system 364.

The IVRS 342 is a telephony-facing computer system configured to sendcall handling instructions to the PSTN 330 and store, record, and sendaudio messages to the caller telephone device 310 through the PSTN 330.The IVRS 342 receives a call from the caller telephone device 310 andreceives call-related information over a signaling channel from the PSTN330.

The IVRS 342 may use the call-related information to validate the calleror, additionally or alternatively, may validate the caller by, forexample, prompting the caller for a password and user identity. The IVRS342 may send the call-related information and, if applicable, the useridentity and password to the message transfer point 344. The messagetransfer point 344 may access the configuration data store 346 andvalidate the caller by verifying that the call-related information oruser identity and password match with that in an active subscriberrecord.

The IVRS 342 also may send a request for community configuration data tothe message transfer point 344. The community configuration data isgeneral data or, additionally or alternatively, data specific to acaller that identifies the communities of interest selectable by thecaller. After receiving the community configuration data, the IVRS 342may prompt the caller to select a community of interest from thoseavailable to the caller. The IVRS 342 sends the caller community ofinterest selection to the message transfer point 344.

In another implementation, the IVRS 342 may send the call-relatedinformation including the direct number dialed by the caller to themessage transfer point 344. The message transfer point 344 may thenidentify the community of interest by accessing the configuration datastore 346 based on the direct number dialed by the caller. The communityof interest may be uniquely identified in this manner, or,alternatively, the message transfer point 344 may use the direct numberto identify and retrieve community configuration data representative ofa set of communities of interest associated with the direct number. Themessage transfer point 344 may send this community configuration data tothe IVRS 342 which may then prompt the caller to select from among thisset of communities of interest.

The IVRS 342 also may be configured to send the appropriate instructionsto the PSTN 330 over a signaling channel to forward the call to a directnumber of a call recipient telephone 315, 320 if the message transferpoint 344 indicates that only one participant wants join the conferencecall. If the message transfer point indicates that no participants wantto join the conference call, the IVRS 342 may be configured to play anaudio message to the caller indicating that no participants wish to jointhe call and may then disconnect the call or, alternatively, may promptthe caller to select another community of interest.

The IVRS 342 is also configured to place one or more outbound calls topotential call recipients if the message transfer point 344 indicatesthat more than one participant wants to join the conference call and atleast one of the participants wants to connect to the conference callover the PSTN 330. Once a potential call recipient accepts the call, theIVRS 342 may transfer the voice path of the call over the PSTN 330 tothe conference call system 348 via an intelligent transfer mechanism.The intelligent transfer mechanism may be, for example, Release LinkTrunking or 2B-Channel Transfer. Alternatively, the IVRS 342 mayinternally connect the call to the conference call system 348 by settingup additional voice paths through the IVRS 342 to the conference callsystem 348.

The message transfer point 344 is an IP-facing computer system thatperforms various call management and data processing functions. Thesefunctions include validating a caller that calls the IVRS 342, accessingand sending community configuration data to the IVRS 342, receiving fromthe IVRS 342 and processing the caller community of interest selection,requesting from the presence detection server 362 the online status ofthe user identities corresponding to potential call recipients that aremembers of the selected community of interest, generating and sendingcall notification messages to the online potential call recipients viathe alerts system 364, receiving option selections from the alertssystem 364, and sending instructions corresponding to the receivedoption selections to the IVRS 342, the conference call system 348, andthe Internet telephony gateway 349.

The message transfer point 344 may access the configuration data store346 to both validate a call received by the IVRS 342 and to retrievecommunity configuration data. The community configuration data may be,for example, indexed by or otherwise retrievable based on the telephonenumber of the caller, the user identity specified by the caller, and/orthe direct number dialed by the caller.

The message transfer point 344 receives and processes the conferencecall participation option selections and the conference call connectionoption selections of the potential call recipients. If no participantsdesire to join the conference call, the message transfer point 344instructs the IVRS 342 to send an audio message to the caller indicatingthat no participants wish to join the call. If only one participantdesires to join the conference call and that participant has selected tojoin the conference call over the PSTN 330, the message transfer point344 instructs the IVRS 342 to forward the call to the call recipienttelephone 315, 320 of the single willing participant (i.e., to thedirect number associated with the single willing participant). If one ormore participants desire to join the conference call and have selectedto join the call over the Internet 350, the message transfer point 344instructs the Internet telephony gateway 349 to establish abi-directional audio channel with the call recipient computer systems365, 370 associated with each of the corresponding participants. If morethan one participant desires to join the conference call and haveselected to join the call over the PSTN 330, the message transfer point344 instructs the IVRS 342 to place outbound calls to the call recipienttelephone devices 315, 320 associated with the correspondingparticipants (i.e., to the direct numbers associated with the willingparticipants).

The message transfer point 344 also sends instructions to the conferencecall system 348 to setup the conference call. The instructions typicallyinclude the number of participants, the data indicating the level ofparticipation of each participant (e.g., active participation or justlistening), and identification information that allows the conferencecall system 348 to identify the connections through which each of theparticipants will participate in the conference call. In oneimplementation, the identification information includes the directtelephone numbers of the participants (e.g., the destination telephonenumber of the outbound calls placed by the IVRS 342 or the telephonenumber assigned to the participant by the Internet telephony gateway349). The conference call system 348 may then identify the connectionassociated with that participant using, for example, DNIS. In anotherimplementation, the identification information includes the channels orthe trunk group through which the conference call system 348 receivesthe voice path associated with that participant. This implementation istypically used when the IVRS 342 internally connects the call associatedwith the participant to the conference call system 348 by setting up anadditional voice path through the IVRS 342 to the conference call system348.

The configuration data store 346 is a data storage device that iscommunicatively coupled to the message transfer point 344 and thatincludes account records, community configuration data records, andcommunity data records. The account records store information related toa subscriber of the conference call service and may be indexed, forexample, by subscriber telephone number and/or user identity. Theaccount records may be accessed to determine whether the subscriber isan active subscriber and to determine the call notification messagepreferences of the subscriber.

Call notification message preferences are instructions typicallyspecified by each user identity that indicate how the call notificationmessage sent to that user identity should be formatted and what optionsshould appear in the call notification message. The options may includecall participation options and call connection options. The callparticipation options may include active participation, listener, noparticipation, and send audio or text message reply. The audio or textmessage reply is typically sent when the subscriber does not wish toparticipate in the conference call and to provide some reasons for notparticipating. The audio or text message reply to the call notificationmessage may be inputted dynamically by the subscriber upon receipt ofthe call notification message or may be chosen from among apredetermined set of options (e.g., “Cannot participate due to otherpreexisting commitment,” and “Sorry, but I am busy right now,”). Thecall connection options may include connecting to the conference callusing a traditional telephone connection over the PSTN 330 using, forexample, the call recipient telephone 315, 320, or connecting to theconference call using the call recipient computer system 365, 370 (e.g.,which may be a data telephone) which may be configured to establish andcommunicate using a bi-directional audio channel over the Internet 350.

The community configuration data records store the communityconfiguration data for that subscriber and may be indexed, for example,by subscriber telephone number and/or user identity. The communityconfiguration data may take the form of a set of data entries specificto a subscriber that include community of interest identifiers for thecommunities of interest available to that subscriber. In anotherimplementation, the account records include the community configurationdata for that subscriber, and, therefore, community configuration datarecords are not used.

The community data records include a set of data entries specific to acommunity of interest that include user identifiers for the members inthat community of interest. Each user identifier typically includes atelephone number for that user and may include other information relatedto establishing a bi-directional voice path with the user across thePSTN 330 or the Internet 350 (e.g., IP address information). Thecommunity data records may be indexed, for example, by community ofinterest identifiers. In another implementation, the data in thecommunity data records, the account records, and the communityconfiguration data records may be subdivided, stored, and indexed in adifferent fashion than that described above (i.e., all of the data maybe accessible in a single data record and indexed by subscriber useridentifier).

The conference call system 348 is a telephony-facing computer systemconfigured to receive conference call setup instructions from themessage transfer point 344 and initiate a conference call in accordancewith the conference call setup instructions. The conference call system348 receives or accesses information on the number and type ofparticipants (interactive or listen only) and reserves the appropriatequantity of contiguous audio bridging resources. The conference callsystem 348 configures these resources for both bi-directional andunidirectional (listen-only) participants. It then assigns ports to eachof these resources and audio paths are established to those ports.

The conference call system 348 also manages audio bridging resourcesduring the session. For example, the conference call system 348 freesbridging resources when audio paths are no longer attached to ports andreconfigures bridging resources if a participant elects to changebetween bi-directional and uni-directional participation during theconference. It also re-allocates and adds resources if additionalparties elect to join later, or if the session is extended.Additionally, the conference call system 348 de-allocates resources atcompletion of a session.

In particular, the IVRS 342 sets up voice paths between the callrecipient telephone devices 315, 320 and the conference call system 348for potential call recipients that choose to participate in theconference call over the PSTN 330. The Internet telephony gateway 349sets up voice paths from the Internet telephony gateway 349 to theconference call system 348 for potential call recipients that choose toparticipate in the conference call over the Internet 350 using therecipient computer systems 365, 370. The conference call system 348identifies the voice path connections of each participant based on theidentification information included in the instructions received fromthe message transfer point 344. The conference call system 348 uses theidentification information to establish a bi-directional audio bridgethat connects the voice paths of the participants. If a participant is alistener, the conference call system may change the voice path to aunidirectional voice path.

The Internet telephony gateway 349 is a computer system configured to bea digital telephony interface that converts packets of encoded voicedata received over the Internet 350 into audio sent over voice pathsestablished between the Internet telephony gateway 349 and theconference call system 348. The Internet telephony gateway 349 may use atypical CODECs (e.g., G. 711, G.723, or G.728) to encode and decode thepackets of voice data. When a potential call recipient chooses theoption to connect to the conference call over the Internet, the messagetransfer point 344 instructs the Internet telephony gateway 349 toestablish a bi-directional audio channel (or, in some implementations, aunidirectional audio channel if the potential call recipient chooses toonly listen to the conference call) with the recipient computer system365, 370. The Internet telephony gateway 349 may communicate with therecipient computer system 365, 370 using, for example, a voice-over-IPcommunications protocol such as H.323 or SIP.

The Internet telephony gateway 349 also receives from the messagetransfer point 348 the telephone number or trunk group assigned to thecall recipient. The Internet telephony gateway 349 may use the assignedtelephone number or trunk group to establish a voice path for that callrecipient from the Internet telephony gateway 349 to the conference callsystem 348. Packets of voice data received from that call recipient maythen be decoded, converted to audio, and sent to the conference callsystem 348 over the appropriate voice path assigned to that callrecipient. Similarly, audio received over the voice path assigned to thecall recipient may be encoded and converted to voice data packets by theInternet telephony gateway 349 and then sent to the call recipientcomputer system 365, 370 over the Internet 350. In anotherimplementation, the Internet telephony gateway 349 and the conferencecall system 348 are implemented as a single or otherwise integratedsystem configured to handle connections over the Internet 350 and overthe PSTN 330.

The presence server 362 is a server that receives, updates, andpublishes online presence data for each identity. The presence server362 enables the message transfer point 344 to access online status datafor particular user identities. In one implementation, the presenceserver 362 is functionally similar to the central server in an InstantMessaging system that receives periodic online status updates from callrecipient computer systems 365, 370. In another implementation, thepresence server 362 is functionally similar to the presence detectionsystem disclosed in application Ser. No. 10/414,167 that receivescommunication device status data and user availability to perceivecommunications data from a device monitor coupled to the device 365B,370B of the call destination computer system 370. In thisimplementation, the message transfer point 344 includes thefunctionality of a device monitoring system.

The alerts system 364 is a computer system configured to enable realtime or near real time transmission of call notification messages tocall recipient computer systems 365, 370 from the message transfer point344 and transmission of the option selections from call recipientcomputer systems 365, 370 to the message transfer point 344. The alertssystem 364 is configured to provide this functionality in a mannersimilar to that used by Instant Messaging systems to enable transmissionand receipt of instant messages in real time. Such a system has beendescribed, for example, in application Ser. No. 10/320,712, herebyincorporated by reference.

FIGS. 4A to 4C show a process 400 for initiating a conference call usingan electronic messaging interface. For convenience, particularcomponents described with respect to FIG. 3 are referenced as performingthe process 400. However, similar methodologies may be applied in otherimplementations where different components are used to define thestructure of the system, or where the functionality is distributeddifferently among the components shown by FIG. 3 .

The user of the caller telephone device 110 calls the IVRS 342 (402).The IVRS 342 accepts the call, validates the caller by, for example,prompting the caller for a caller identity and a password, and receivescall-related information from the PSTN 330 (404). Once the caller isvalidated, the IVRS 342 sends a request to the message transfer point344 for community configuration data associated with the caller (406).The request includes call-related information sufficient to enable themessage transfer point 344 to determine the user identity of the caller(e.g., the message transfer point 344 may determine the user identity ofthe caller based on the telephone number of the caller).

The message transfer point 344 receives the request for communicationconfiguration data (408) and accesses the configuration data store 346to retrieve the community configuration data from the communityconfiguration data record associated with the user identity of thecaller (410). The message transfer point 344 sends the communityconfiguration data to the IVRS 342 (412).

The IVRS 342 receives the community configuration data associated withthe caller (414) and prompts the caller to input a conference call topicand conference call duration and prompts the caller to select acommunity of interest from those included in the community configurationdata (416). The IVRS 342, for example, may prompt the caller to select acommunity of interest using an audio menu-driven interface. Eachcommunity of interest may be designated by an audio label or audiodescription provided by the caller during service registration, and theIVRS 342 speaks the list of audio labels and prompts the caller toselect from among the various communities of interest by, for example,pressing a key in the touch pad of the caller telephone device 310 orspeaking a number associated with the selected community of interest.The IVRS 342 sends the caller selection to the message transfer point344 (418).

In another implementation, the message transfer point 344 sends thecommunity configuration data to the caller telephone device 310 over theInternet 350. The caller telephone device 310 may display the availablecommunities of interest in a visual display as a list and enable thecaller to select a community of interest from the list. The callertelephone device 310 then sends the selection across the Internet 350 tothe message transfer point 344. This implementation assumes that thecaller telephone device 310 has data communication capabilities toreceive and send data over the Internet 350.

The message transfer point 344 receives the caller community of interestselection (420) and accesses the configuration data store 346 toidentify the user identities included in the selected community ofinterest (422). The message transfer point 344 may identify the useridentities by accessing the community data record corresponding to thatcommunity of interest. The message transfer point 344 sends a request tothe presence detection server 362 for the online status of the useridentities in the community of interest (424).

The presence detection server 362 receives the request for the onlinestatus of the user identities (426) and accesses the online status ofthe user identities in the community of interest (428). The presencedetection server 362 sends the online status of the user identities tothe message transfer point 344 (430).

The message transfer point receives the online status of the useridentities (432) and determines whether at least one user identity isonline. If no user identities are online, process 400 proceeds, tooperation 462. If at least one user identity is online, the messagetransfer point 344 accesses the configuration data store 346 to retrievethe call notification message format information stored in the accountrecords associated with each online user identity (434). The messagetransfer point 344 generates call notification messages for each useridentity that is online in accordance with the retrieved callnotification message formats and sends the call notification messages tothe alerts system 364 (436).

The alerts system 364 receives the call notification messages (438) andsends the call notification messages along with format data to callrecipient computer systems 365, 370 corresponding to the online useridentities (440). The receiving of the call notification messages andsending of the call notification messages and format data may beperformed in real time.

Each call recipient computer system 365, 370 receives the callnotification message and format data (442) and enables a user toperceive the call notification message (444). In one implementation, thecall recipient computer system 365, 370 enables the user to perceive thecall notification message as a pop-up window or dialog box that appearson a visual display of the call recipient computer system 365, 370.

The call recipient computer system 365, 370 enables the user to selectan option offered in the call notification message prior to expirationof a predetermined time interval (e.g., 2 minutes) (445). The callrecipient computer system 365, 370 sends the option selection to thealerts system 364 (446).

The alerts system 364 receives the option selection (447) and sends theoption selection to the message transfer point 344 (448). The alertssystem 364 may be configured to receive and send the option selection tothe message transfer point 344 in real time.

The message transfer point 344 receives the option selection (449) andgenerates an updated call notification message for each user identitythat is online and sends the updated call notification messages to thealerts system 364 (450). The alerts system 364 receives the updated callnotification messages (451) and sends the updated call notificationmessage to the corresponding call recipient computer systems 365, 370(452). Each call recipient computer system 365, 370 receives an updatedcall notification message (453) and enables a user to perceive theupdated call notification message (454).

After the message transfer point 344 receives option selections from allcall recipient computer systems 365, 370 or after a predeterminedinterval of time (e.g., 2 minutes), the message transfer point 344identifies the participants to the conference call based on the receivedoption selections (455). The message transfer point 344 determineswhether only one participant wishes to join the call (456). If theconference call connection options associated with that call recipientindicate that the call recipient wishes to use the call recipienttelephone 315, 320 to connect to the conference call over the PSTN 330,the message transfer point 344 sends a forward call signal to the IVRS346 (457). The IVRS 346 receives the forward call signal (458), sends acall forward instruction to the PSTN 330 over a signal channel (459),and plays an audio message informing the caller that only oneparticipant wishes to join and the call is being forwarded to thatparticipant (460). The PSTN 330 forwards the call to the appropriatecall recipient telephone 315, 320 in accordance with the forward callsignal received from the IVRS 346.

If the conference call connection options associated with the one callrecipient that wishes to participate in the call indicate that the callrecipient wishes to use the call recipient computer system 365, 370 toconnect to the conference call over the Internet 350, the messagetransfer point 344 sends appropriate call setup information to theInternet telephony gateway 349. The Internet telephony gateway 349 thenenables the recipient computer system 365, 370 of the call recipient tocommunicate with the conference call system 348 over a bi-directionalaudio channel (not shown).

The message transfer point 344 determines whether more than onepotential call recipient wishes to participate in the conference call(461). If no potential call recipients wish to join the conference call,the message transfer point 344 sends a no participants signal to theIVRS 342 (462). The IVRS 342 receives the no participants signal (463)and plays an audio indicating to the caller that no participants areavailable to join the conference call (464). The IVRS 342 then instructsthe PSTN 330 to disconnect the call (464).

If more than one potential call recipient wishes to join the conferencecall, the message transfer point 344 accesses the configuration datastore to identify contact information associated with each participant(465). If one or more participants have chosen to connect to theconference call over the PSTN 330, the message transfer point 344 sendsan outbound calls signal to the IVRS 342 (466). The outbound callssignal includes the telephone numbers of those participants that havechosen to connect to the conference call over the PSTN 330. The IVRS 342receives the outbound calls signal (467) and places outbound calls tothe telephone numbers of the corresponding participants over the PSTN330 (468). When a participant accepts an outbound call, the IVRS 342redirects the bi-directional voice path of the outbound call to theconference call system 348 (469).

The message transfer point 344 also sends conference call setupinformation to the conference call system 348 (470). If one or moreparticipants have chosen to connect to the conference call over theInternet 350 using, for example, voice-over-IP, the message transferpoint 344 sends call setup information to the Internet telephony gateway349 for each of the participants that selected to connect to theconference call over the Internet 350 (471). The call setup informationvaries depending on the communications protocol used by the Internettelephony gateway 349 but typically includes the IP addresses of therecipient computer systems 365, 370 associated with the respectiveparticipants. The call setup information also typically includes thetelephone numbers and/or trunk group identifiers assigned to therespective participants. The Internet telephony gateway 349 receives thecall setup information (472) and establishes a bi-directional audiochannel with the recipient computer systems 365, 370 (473). The Internettelephony gateway 349 also establishes a bi-directional voice path withthe conference call system 348 for the corresponding recipient computersystem 365, 370 (474). The gateway 349 enables audio communicationbetween a recipient computer system 365, 370 and the conference callsystem 348 by receiving voice data packets from the recipient computersystem 365, 370 over the bi-directional audio channel, decoding thevoice data packets, converting the voice data packets to audio, andsending the audio to the conference call system 348 over the voice pathassigned to that call recipient computer system 365, 370.

The conference call system 348 receives conference call setupinformation from the message transfer point 344 (475). The conferencecall system also receives bi-directional voice path connections for theoutbound calls placed by the IVRS 342 (476) and for the Internettelephony calls placed by the Internet telephony gateway 349 (477). Onceall participants have been connected to the conference call system 348over a voice path, the conference call system 348 launches a conferencecall that enables participants to participate in accordance with theiroption selections (478).

In another implementation, the message transfer point 344 does not waitto receive option selections from all online identities before settingup the conference call. Rather, the message transfer point 344, theInternet telephony gateway 349, and the IVRS 342 perform operations465-478 as soon as one or two participants agree to join the call.Additional participants may then join the conference call in progress byselecting the option to join the conference call in the updated callnotification message. The updated call notification message may indicateto the remaining potential call recipients that the conference call isin progress. In this implementation, the additional participants may beallowed to select to join the conference call at any time during itsduration (i.e., they are not forced to select a participation option inthe predetermined time interval). Alternatively, the additionalparticipants may be allowed to join the conference call only for apredetermined interval of time while the conference call is in progress(e.g., one minute).

FIG. 5A shows a user interface 500 that may be presented to the user bythe call recipient computer system 165, 170, 365, 370 upon receipt of acall notification message. The user interface 500 includes a statements510, 515, 516, and 517 informing the user of the conference callinvitation, the topic of the conference call (e.g., “Review Parodiproject progress”), the expected duration of the conference call (e.g.,“30 minutes”), and the community of interest invited to join theconference call (e.g., “The Ultrasound Hardware Group”), respectively.The user interface 500 also includes caller-related information 520. Thecaller-related information 520 may include the name of the caller 522(e.g., Bob Devane), the direct number of the caller telephone device 524(e.g., (703) 123-4567), the time and date when the call was received 526(e.g., 5:45 EDT on May, 17, 2002), and/or other caller-relatedinformation 528 that may be determined based on the direct number of thecaller telephone device 310. The other caller-related information 528may include, for example, a caller-approved identifier (e.g., areplacement for the caller's name if the caller does not wish todisclose his or her name), the geographic location of the caller (e.g.,Dulles, Va.) and information stored in an address book or calendar thatis accessible based on the direct number of the caller telephone device110 (e.g., Meeting scheduled with Bob on Saturday Jul. 12, 2003). Suchinformation may be stored locally at the call recipient computer system165, 170, 365, 370 or may be accessible from a remote device across thedata network 150 or the Internet 350.

The user interface 500 also includes participation option buttons 530and checkboxes 540 that may be selected by the user to react to thecall. The participation option buttons 530 may include, for example, anoption button to join the conference call as an active participant 532,an option button to join the conference call as a listener 534, and anoption button to not join the conference call 536. The checkboxes 540may include, for example, a checkbox 542 to send a message to the otherpotential participants of the conference call, a checkbox 544 to jointhe conference call over the telephone network 130 or the PSTN 330, anda checkbox 546 to join the conference call over the data network 150 orthe Internet 350.

Selecting the option button to join the call as an active participant532 results in the user joining the call and being able to both listenand speak to the other participants. Selecting the option button to jointhe conference call as a listener 534 results in the user joining thecall and being able to listen but not speak to the other participants.Selecting the option button to not join the conference call 536 resultsin the user rejecting the invitation to join the conference call.

The user may choose to send a message to the other potential conferencecall participants by selecting (i.e. “checking”) checkbox 542. If theuser selects checkbox 542, upon the user selecting one of theparticipation option buttons 530, the user is prompted to input (orspeak) a message or to select a predetermined message from a list ofmessages. The message is sent as part of the option selection to theICCP 140, 340. In another implementation, the user interface 500 doesnot include checkbox 542 and the user is only prompted to input amessage if the user selects to not participate in the conference call.The user may be prompted to input why he or she is unavailable to jointhe conference call and when he or she would be available to join such acall. FIG. 5B shows an exemplary user interface 550 that may bepresented to the user to prompt the user to input why he or she isunavailable to join the conference call.

The user may choose to connect to the conference call over the telephonenetwork 130 or over the PSTN 330 by selecting checkbox 544. The user maychoose to connect to the conference call over the data network 150 orover the Internet 350 by selecting checkbox 546.

In another implementation, some or all of the call participation or callconnection options selectable using the user interface 550 may not beavailable. Instead, some or all of the call participation and/or callconnection option selections may be predetermined based on a set ofdefault option selections previously setup for the user and chosen by orfor the user. The default option selections may be stored in thesubscriber account records and may vary based on the caller identity.

The user interface 500 may vary depending on the capabilities of thecall recipient computer systems 165, 170, 365, 370 and the format datareceived from the online service provider system 160, 360. As mentionedbefore, call recipient computer systems 165, 170, 365, 370 with morelimited capabilities may provide less caller-related information 510 andless call participation options 530 and checkboxes 540 while callrecipient computer systems 165, 170, 365, 370 with greater capabilitiesmay provide more caller-related information 510 and more options 530 andcheckboxes 540.

FIG. 6 shows a user interface 600 that may be presented to the user bythe call recipient computer system 165, 170, 365, 370 upon receipt of anupdated call notification message. The user interface 600 includes aconference call status window 610. The conference call status window 610includes a list 620 of data entries. Each data entry corresponds to apotential participant in the community of interest. The list 620 isdivided into an invitee column 630, a status column 640, and a messagecolumn 650. A representative data entry 660 is shown.

The invitee column 630 displays the user identities of the potentialparticipants. The status column 640 includes the participation status ofthe potential participants. The participation status may be designated,for example, as “active” to indicate an active participant, “inactive”to indicate a potential participant who will not be joining theconference call, “listener” to indicate a participant that will listento the conference call but not otherwise participate in the conferencecall, and “?” to indicate a potential participant that has yet to selecta participation option in response to a call notification message. Themessage column 650 includes messages sent by the potential participantsto be viewed by all potential participants. The messages typicallyrelate to the conference call or the message sender's participation inthe conference call. The representative data entry 660 shows that theuser identity “devoPar” has chosen to actively participate in theconference call and has sent to the other potential participants themessage “John is with me and will join the call.”

In another implementation, the information disclosed in the conferencecall status window 610 may be incorporated into the user interface 500in a separate portion of the user interface 500 designated as, forexample, “Conference Call Status.” In yet another implementation, theconference call status window 610 only shows a total number of inviteesfor each status category (e.g., 3 active, 2 listener, 1 inactive, and5?) and only shows a data entry 660 for those potential participantsthat send a message to the other potential participants.

FIGS. 15A-15C show a process 1500 for initiating a conference call usingan electronic messaging system that provides an initiating caller withenhanced flexibility in sending out conference call invitations (i.e.,call notification messages) to potential call recipients that are notcurrently online. For convenience, particular components described withrespect to FIG. 1A are referenced as performing the process 1500.However, similar methodologies may be applied in other implementationswhere different components are used to define the structure of thesystem, or where the functionality is distributed differently among thecomponents shown by FIG. 1A. Process 1500 incorporates by reference manyof the operations of process 200.

At 1501, operations 202-216 of process 200 are performed to validate acaller, prompt the caller to select a community of interest, topic, andduration, identify user identities in the community of interest, andreceive the online status of the user identities in the community ofinterest. The ICCPS 140 determines whether all of the user identities inthe community of interest are online (1502). If all of the useridentities in the community of interest are online, process 1500proceeds to operation 702 of process 700 (FIG. 7A) (1504) to enable thecaller to select to proceed with the call, cancel the call, or chooseanother community of interest. If all of the user identities in thecommunity of interest are not online, the ICCPS 140 prompts the callerto select from among call recipient availability options (1506).

FIG. 16 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 1600 configured todisplay the user the identities of the call recipients that areavailable and unavailable to receive conference call invitations andenable user selection of call recipient availability options. The userinterface 1600 includes a call recipient display area 1610 that visuallyindicates which call recipients are available and which call recipientsare unavailable to receive conference call invitations The userinterface also includes an option display area 1615 with which the usermay interact to select a call recipient availability option. In thisexample, the option display area 1615 includes a set of option buttons1620. The set of option buttons 1620 include: an option button 1630selectable to setup and initiate the conference call with the currentlyavailable call recipients; an option button 1640 selectable to setup andinitiate the conference call with the currently available callrecipients while automatically sending call invitations to unavailablecall recipients as they become available; an option button 1650selectable to not setup or initiate the conference call at the presenttime but rather to inform or notify the user when all call recipientsare concurrently available to receive conference call invitations; anoption button 1660 selectable to not setup or initiate the conferencecall at the the present time but to automatically send conference callinvitations to all call recipients when all call recipients becomeconcurrently available; an option button 1670 selectable to cancel theconference call; and an option button 1680 selectable to change thecommunity of interest.

Referring back to FIGS. 15A-15D, if the caller selects the option to“proceed with call with available recipients” by, for example, selectingthe option button 1630 (1508), process 1500 proceeds to operation 218 ofFIG. 2A to setup and initiate the conference call with only those callrecipients associated with user identities that are online (1510). Ifthe caller selects the option to “change the community of interest” by,for example, selecting the option button 1680 (1512), process 1500proceeds to operations 206-216 of FIG. 2A and then returns to operation1502 (1514). If the caller selects the option to “proceed with the calland pounce on unavailable recipients” by, for example, selecting theoption button 1640 (1516), process 1500 proceeds to operation 1530 tosetup and initiate the call and to automatically send out conferencecall invitations to unavailable call recipients as the user identitiesassociated with those call recipients come online (1518). If the callerselects the option to “notify caller when all recipients are available”by, for example, selecting the option button 1650 (1520), process 1500proceeds to operation 1558 to monitor the online status of useridentities associated with the call recipients and to notify the callerwhen all of the call recipient user identities are concurrently online(1522). If the caller selects the option to “not proceed with the call,but proceed with the call automatically when all recipients areavailable” by, for example, selecting the option button 1660 (1520),process 1500 proceeds to operation 1558 to monitor the online status ofuser identities associated with the call recipients and to setup andinitiate the conference call when all of the call recipient useridentities are concurrently online (1522). If the caller does not selectany of the aforementioned options, the call may be canceled (1524)(e.g., after a predetermined interval of time or when the callerspecifically selects an option to cancel the call).

More particularly with respect to FIGS. 15A and 15B, if the callerselects the option to “proceed with the call and pounce on unavailablerecipients” (1518 of FIG. 15A), the ICCPS 140 sends an unavailable callrecipient pounce signal to the online service provider system 160 (1530of FIG. 15B). In some implementations, the unavailable call recipientpounce signal identifies the identities corresponding to the unavailablecall recipients. The online service provider system 160 receives theunavailable call recipient pounce signal (1534) and begins monitoringthe online status of the user identities associated with the unavailablecall recipients (1536). The online service provider system 160 monitorsthe online status to detect when one of the user identities associatedwith an unavailable call recipient comes online (1538).

If one of the user identities associated the an unavailable callrecipient comes online, the online service provider system 160 sends acall recipient available signal to the ICCPS 140 (1540). The callrecipient available signal typically identifies the user identity thathas come online. Prior to, concurrent with, or subsequent to sending thecall recipient available signal, the online service provider system 160determines whether any other user identities of unavailable callrecipients have yet to come online (1542). If there are other useridentities associated with unavailable call recipients that have yet tocome online, the online service provider system continues monitoring(1536). If however, all of the user identities associated withunavailable call recipients have at some point come online while beingmonitored by the online service provider system 160, the online serviceprovider system 160 stops monitoring (1544).

The ICCPS 140 receives the call recipient available signal (1546) anddetermines whether the conference call is still in progress (1548). Ifthe conference call is still in progress, process 1500 proceeds tooperation 218 of process 200 to automatically send a conference callinvitation (i.e., a call notification message) to the call recipientassociated with the user identity that has come online (1550). Notably,in this implementation of process 200 the conference call is alreadysetup and in progress and the call recipient may select toasynchronously join or “jump into” the conference call.

If the conference call is no longer in progress, the ICCPS 140 sends anend pounce signal to the online service provider system 160 (1552). Theonline service provider system 160 receives the end pounce signal (1554)and stops monitoring the online status of the user identities associatedwith unavailable call recipients (1556). In another implementation, theICCPS 140 sends an end pounce signal automatically when the conferencecall terminates to instruct the online service provider system 160 tostop monitoring.

And, more particularly with respect to FIGS. 15A and 15C, if the callerselects the option to “notify caller when all recipients are available”or the option to “not proceed with the call, but proceed with the callautomatically when all recipients are available” (1520 of FIG. 15A), theICCPS 140 sends a notify caller when all available signal to the onlineservice provider system 160 (1558 of FIG. 15C). The online serviceprovider system 160 receives the notify caller when all available signal(1560) and begins to monitor the online status of the user identitiesassociated with all of the call recipients (1562). The online serviceprovider system 160 monitors the identities to determine when the useridentities of all of the call recipients are concurrently online (1564).

When the user identities of all of the call recipients are concurrentlyonline, the online service provider system 160 sends an all callrecipients available signal to the ICCPS 140 (1566) and stops monitoring(1568). The ICCPS 140 receives the all call recipients available signal(1570) and notifies the caller that all of the call recipients are nowavailable (1572). The ICCPS 140 may, for example, present to the callera pop-up window that informs the caller that all of the call recipientsare now available. If the caller selected the option to “not proceedwith the call, but proceed with the call automatically when allrecipients are available,” process 1500 proceeds to operation 218 ofprocess 200 to proceed with the call by automatically sending outconference call invitations (1576). Otherwise, process 1500 thenproceeds to operation 702 of process 700 to enable the caller to chooseto proceed with the conference call (1578). FIGS. 17A-17D show a process1700 for scheduling a conference call or meeting using an electronicmessaging system. In process 1700, the caller is referred to moregenerally as an “inviter” to better reflect that this implementation isnot limited to a call context. For convenience, particular componentsdescribed with respect to FIG. 1A are referenced as performing theprocess 1700. However, similar methodologies may be applied in otherimplementations where different components are used to define thestructure of the system, or where the functionality is distributeddifferently among the components shown by FIG. 1A. Process 1500incorporates by reference many of the operations of process 200.

Operations 202-204 of process 200 are performed to validate an inviter(1701). The inviter may use a caller phone 110 to call the ICCPS 140and/or a caller computer system to access the ICCPS 140. Once theinviter has been validated, the ICCPS 140 prompts the inviter to selectfrom among a set of meeting/call scheduling setup options (1702).

FIG. 18 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 1800 configured toenable caller selection from among a set of meeting/call schedulingsetup options. The user interface 1800 includes various fields 1810 thatmay be populated or otherwise filled in by the user. The fields 1810include: a meeting/call topic field 1812 in which the user may input thetopic of the call or meeting (e.g., “Review Parodi Project Progress”); acommunity of interest field 1814 in which the user may input thecommunity of interest that will receive call/meeting scheduleinvitations (e.g., “The Ultrasound Hardware Group”); a location ofmeeting field 1816 which is optionally displayed if setting up a meetingrather than a call and in which the user may input a location of themeeting (e.g., “The Lafayette Conference Room); a meeting/call day field1818 in which the user may input an initial proposed day during whichthe user wishes the meeting/conference call to be scheduled (e.g.,“10/31/05”); a meeting/call start time field 1820 in which the user mayinput a proposed start time for the meeting/call (e.g., “10 AM”); ameeting duration field 1822 in which the user may input the expectedduration of the meeting (e.g., “1 Hour”); and a start time window field1824 in which the user may input a range of time from which the starttime of the meeting/call may be chosen if unable to schedule themeeting/call at the proposed start time (i.e., unable to schedule themeeting/call at 10 AM). In this example, the start time window is “9 AMto 5 PM”, and therefore, the range of possible start times for themeeting/call is any time between 9 AM and 5 PM. In some implementations,the start time window is the same as the user's availability for theproposed day. For example, the user may only be available to meet from10 AM-2 PM and 3 PM-6 PM on Oct. 31, 2005, and, therefore, the userspecifically sets the start time window to be 10 AM-1 PM and 3 PM-5 PM(i.e., since the duration of the meeting is 1 hour). In anotherimplementation, the start time window is automatically determined byaccessing a stored calendar associated with the user.

The user interface 1800 also includes a start time preference display1826 with which the user may interact to indicate whether the userprefers, when multiple start times are possible, selection of a starttime that is earlier or later in the day. For example, if all inviteesare available to participate in the meeting/call at 11 AM-12 PM and at 3PM-4 PM on Oct. 31, 2005, then the meeting start time will be at 11 AMif the start time preference indicates that the inviter prefers starttimes early in the day and will be scheduled at 3 PM if the start timepreference indicates that the inviter prefers start times later in theday.

The user interface 1800 also includes an inviter availability display1828 with which the user may interact to specify his or her availabilityduring the proposed day of the meeting/call. In this exemplary userinterface, the user may choose to not specify his or her availability onthe proposed day (in which case his or her availability is determinediteratively and dynamically through operations 1709-1749 of thedescribed scheduling process 1700), specify his or her availability asbeing the same as the start time window inputted into field 1824,manually specify his or her availability, and automatically specify hisor her availability based on stored calendar information specific to theuser. For example, the user's availability may be depicted as a timelinebetween 9 AM and 6 PM (i.e., the beginning time of the start time windowto the end time of the start time window plus the duration of themeeting) that includes contiguous blocks of time, some of which aredesignated as unavailable and some of which are designated as available.

Notably, the availability of the user may be obtained by interfacing andaccessing stored calendar information from an application that providestime organization and calendar functions. The calendar information maybe stored locally or on a remote server. The described processes andsystems thereby enable users with different calendar applications (e.g.,MICROSOFT OUTLOOK, NETSCAPE CALENDAR) to share availability informationand automatically setup meetings/conference calls with each other andwith users that have no stored calendar information.

Once the user has provided the information in the fields 1810, the starttime preference display 1826 and the inviter availability display 1828,the user may select to submit the call/meeting setup information byselecting, for example, a submit button 1830. Alternatively, the usermay cancel the call/meeting setup at any time by selecting, for example,the cancel button 1832.

Referring back to FIGS. 17A-17D, once the inviter has selected themeeting/call scheduling setup options by, for example, interacting withthe graphical user interface 1800, the ICCPS 140 identifies the useridentities in the community of interest chosen by the inviter and sendsa request to the online service provider system 160 for the onlinestatus of the user identities (1703). The online service provider 160receives the request for the online status of the user identities(1704), accesses the online status of the user identities (1705), andsends the online status of the user identities to the ICCPS 140 (1706).

The ICCPS 140 receives the online status of the user identities (1707)and performs operations 1502-1578 of process 1500 (1708). However, whenperforming operations 1502-1578, references to “proceeding with thecall” are replaced by “proceeding with scheduling the call or meeting”and instructions to proceed to operation 218 of process 200 are replacedby instructions to proceed to operation 1709. Moreover, when performingoperation 1548, the ICCPS 140 checks whether the meeting/call asscheduled by the available call recipients has not already occurredrather than checking whether the call is still in progress. If thescheduled meeting/call has not already occurred, then process 700proceeds to operation 1709 and a meeting/call scheduling invitation issent to the previously unavailable recipient. If the scheduledmeeting/call has already occurred, an end pounce signal is sent to theonline service provider system 160 and the monitoring of the onlinestatus is ended.

FIG. 19 shows a graphical user interface 1900 that corresponds to thegraphical user interface 1600 but that is configured for schedulingcalls/meetings rather than initiating a conference call.

The ICCPS 140 generates and sends meeting/call scheduling invitations torecipients associated with user identities that are online (1709). Theonline service provider system 1709 receives the meeting/call schedulinginvitations (1710) and sends the meeting/call scheduling invitations andformat data to computer systems associated with the user identities thatare online (1711). The call recipient computer systems 165,170 receivesthe meeting/call scheduling invitations and format data (1712), enablesthe user to perceive the meeting/call scheduling invitations and formatdata (1713), and enables users to select an availability option fromamong a set of availability options in response to the meeting/callscheduling invitation (1714).

FIG. 20 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 2000 configured toenable an invitee to respond to a meeting/call scheduling invitation.The user interface 2000 may present information related to the inviterand to the proposed call or meeting that is similar to that presented inthe user interface 500 (e.g., the topic, the community of interest, andthe duration). The user interface 2000 also includes a statement 2005prompting the user to respond to a proposed meeting/call day and time(e.g., “Are you available to participate in this conference call on Oct.31, 2005 at 10-11 AM?”). The user may respond by selecting one of a setof availability option boxes 2010. The set of availability option boxes2010 include an option box 2015 selectable to accept the proposedmeeting/call time and day. Selection of the option box 2015 results in,for example, transmission of user availability data to the ICCPS 140that indicates that the user is available during the interval of timecorresponding to the proposed meeting/call (e.g., the user availabilitydata reflects that the user is available from 10 AM-11 AM on Oct. 31,2005).

The set of availability option boxes 2010 also may include an option box2020 selectable to indicate that the user is unavailable to join thecall/meeting at all on the proposed day. Selection of the option box2020 results in, for example, transmission of user availability data tothe ICCPS 140 that indicates that the user is completely unavailable onthe proposed day (e.g., the user availability data reflects that theuser is not available at all on Oct. 31, 2005). In anotherimplementation, the user interface 2000 includes an option boxselectable to indicate that the user is not available to join thecall/meeting on any day.

The set of availability option boxes 2010 also may include an option box2030 selectable to indicate that the user is unavailable to join thecall/meeting at the proposed time but is available to join thecall/meeting at a different time on the proposed day. The user mayspecify an alternative time on the proposed day by, for example, movinga time block 2032 along a timeline bar 2034. The length of the timeblock 2032 corresponds to the duration of the proposed call or meeting.The length of the timeline bar 2034 may be limited by the start timewindow designated by the inviter (e.g., if the start time window is 9AM-5 PM and the duration of the meeting is 1 hour, the timeline bar 2034may be limited to 9 AM-6 PM to prevent the user from being able topropose a new meeting/call start time that falls outside of the starttime window). For example, the user may indicate that he or she isunavailable to participate in the call/meeting at 10 AM-11 AM on Oct.31, 2005 but is available to participate in the call/meeting at 11 AM-12PM. Selection of the option box 2030 and manual designation of analternative meeting/call time results in, for example, transmission ofuser availability data to the ICCPS 140 that indicates that the user isunavailable during the proposed time of the meeting but is availableduring a manually entered alternative time (e.g., the user availabilitydata reflects unavailability from 10 AM-11 AM on Oct. 31, 2005 andreflects availability from 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005).

The set of availability option boxes 2010 also may include an option box2040 selectable to indicate that the user is available to join thecall/meeting if the call/meeting takes place during an availability timeblock that is manually entered by the user. The user may manually enterone or more time blocks of varying length (i.e., time durations) on atimeline bar 2044. For example, the user may indicate that he or she isonly available to participate in a call/meeting from 9 AM-10 AM and from2 PM-6 PM on Oct. 31, 2005. As described above, the start time windowspecified by the inviter may limit the length of the timeline bar.Selection of the option box 2040 and manual designation of availabilitytime blocks results in, for example, transmission of user availabilitydata to the ICCPS 140 that indicates that the user is available at thetimes corresponding to the manually entered availability time blocks andunavailable at the times that fall outside of the manually enteredavailability time blocks (e.g., the user availability data reflectsavailability from 9 AM-10 AM and from 2 PM-6 PM and unavailability from10 AM-2 PM on Oct. 31, 2005).

The set of availability option boxes 2010 also may include an option box2050 selectable to indicate that the user is available to join thecall/meeting if the call/meeting takes place during a block of time thatcalendar information specific to the user designates as not beingoccupied. Calendar information for the user may be stored locally orremotely and may indicate that certain time periods throughout theproposed day are occupied by various activities. Selection of the optionbutton 2050 results in, for example, transmission of user availabilitydata to the ICCPS 140 that indicates that the user is available toparticipate in the meeting/call on the proposed day at any time that isnot otherwise occupied by activities per the user's calendarinformation. For example, the user's calendar information may indicatethat the user has to give a client presentation from 9 AM-2:30 PM onOct. 31, 2005 but is then free from 2:30 PM-6 PM. In this example,selection of the option box 2050 results in, for example, transmissionof user availability data to the ICCPS 140 that indicates that the useris not available from 9 AM-2:30 PM and is available from 2:30 PM-6 PM.

Once the user has selected from among the set of availability optionboxes 2010 (and manually provided additional availability information asnecessary), the user may select to submit the availability optionselection and information to the ICCPS 140 by selecting, for example, asubmit button 2060.

In another implementation, a user is not presented with the userinterface 2000 in response to receipt of a conference call invitation.Rather, the user sets up preferences that enable the call recipientcomputer system 165, 170 to automatically select one or more of theavailability options and automatically communicate the selected optionto the online service provider system 160 in response to receipt of aconference call invitation. For example, the user may select toautomatically send user availability data corresponding to calendarinformation specific to the user in response to a conference callinvitation.

Referring back to FIGS. 17A-17D, once the invitee has selected andsubmitted an availability option, the call recipient computer system165, 170 sends or otherwise communicates the availability option to theonline service provider system 160 (1715). In some implementations, thecommunicated availability option selection includes correspondinginvitee availability data. The online service provider system 160receives or is made aware of the availability option selection (1716)and sends or communicates the availability option selection to the ICCPS140 (1717).

The ICCPS 140 receives or is made aware of the availability optionselection (1718) and stores or updates the corresponding useravailability data (1719). In some implementations, the ICCPS 140monitors for receipt of availability option selections from invitees fora predetermined interval of time (one day) before designating inviteesthat have not responded during that interval of time as beingunavailable and eliminating them from participating in both the meetingand the scheduling of the meeting. This predetermined interval of timemay be specified by the inviter.

The ICCPS 140 determines whether the communicated availability optionselection corresponds to accepting the proposed meeting/call time(1720). If the availability option selection does not correspond toaccepting the proposed meeting/call time, process 1700 proceeds tooperation 1731 (1721). If the availability option selection correspondsto accepting the proposed meeting/call time, the ICCPS 140 determineswhether the stored availability data for the invitees and inviter showan overlap of availability for the inviter and all of the invitees forthe proposed meeting/call time (1722).

If the stored availability data for the inviter and all of the inviteesshow an overlap of availability for the proposed meeting/call time, theICCPS 140 sends or communicates confirmatory messages to all of theinvitees and to the inviter indicating that the meeting/call isscheduled at the proposed meeting/call time (1723). For example, if theinviter and all of the invitees affirmatively indicate that they areavailable from 10 AM-11 AM on Oct. 31, 2005, then the meeting/call isscheduled and confirmatory messages are communicated. The online serviceprovider 160 receives or is made aware of the confirmatory messages(1724) and sends or communicates the confirmatory messages and formatdata to computer systems associated with the invitees and with theinviter (1725). The computer systems associated with the invitees (e.g.,the call recipient computer systems 165, 170) and the computer system(or phone) associated with the inviter (not shown) receive or are madeaware of the confirmatory messages arid format data (1726) and enabletheir respective users to perceive the confirmatory messages (1727).

FIG. 21 shows an exemplary graphical user interface 2100 configured toinform a user of the successful scheduling of a meeting/call. The userinterface 2100 includes a statement 2110 that informs the user that thecall/meeting has been successfully scheduled at a specified time andday. In another implementation, the user interface 2100 also identifiesthe users that will participate in the scheduled meeting/call by, forexample, displaying their associated user identifiers. In yet anotherimplementation, the user interface 2100 enables the user to select toupdate their calendar information to reflect the newly scheduledmeeting/call and/or setup a reminder to remind them of the newlyscheduled meeting/call at some point prior to the meeting/call. Notably,the updating of calendar information is application independent in thatthe system may update calendar information for each user even if theusers use different calendar applications. In yet anotherimplementation, the user interface 2100 enables the user to specify thatthe conference call should be automatically launched and the user shouldautomatically receive a conference call invitation at or shortly priorto the scheduled time of the call.

Referring back to FIGS. 17A-17D, if the stored availability dataassociated with the inviter and with all of the invitees does notindicate that the inviter and all of the invitees are available duringthe proposed meeting/call time, the ICCPS determines whether theavailability data associated with the inviter and with all of theinvitees indicate a possibility of an overlap of availability for theproposed meeting/call time (1728). If the stored availability dataindicate a possibility of an overlap of availability for the inviter andall invitees for the proposed meeting/call time, process 1700 proceedsto operation 1718 to await further receipt of scheduling optionselections from other invitees (1729). For example, if the proposedmeeting/call time is 10 AM-11 AM on Oct. 31, 2005 and the inviter andtwo of three invitees have affirmatively indicated availability from 10AM-11 AM on Oct. 31, 2005 and the third invitee has not yet provided anyinformation about his or her availability on 10 AM-11 Am on Oct. 31,2005, then a possibility exists that the inviter and all three inviteeswill be available to participate in a meeting/call from 10 AM-11 AM onOct. 31, 2005. In such a situation, the ICCPS 140 waits to receive anavailability option selection and corresponding availability data fromthe third invitee before determining whether or not the meeting may bescheduled at 10 AM-11 AM on Oct. 31, 2005.

If the stored availability data does not indicate a possibility of anoverlap of availability for the inviter and all invitees for theproposed meeting/call time (1730), process 1700 proceeds to operation1741. For example, if the proposed meeting/call time is 10 AM-11 AM onOct. 31, 2005, process 1700 proceeds to operation 1741 if the inviter orany one of the invitees has affirmatively indicated that they areunavailable during that time.

If the availability option selection does not correspond to acceptingthe proposed meeting/call time, the ICCPS 140 determines whether theavailability option selection proposes a new meeting/call time (1731).For example, the availability option selection may reject and indicateunavailability at the proposed meeting/call time of 10 AM-11 AM on Oct.31, 2005, and may instead propose a new meeting/call time from 11 AM-12PM on Oct. 31, 2005.

If the availability option selection corresponds to rejecting theproposed meeting/call time and proposing a new meeting/call time, theICCPS 140 determines whether the stored availability data for theinvitees and inviter show an overlap of availability for the inviter andall of the invitees for the proposed new meeting/call time (1732). Ifthe stored availability data for the inviter and all of the inviteesshow an overlap of availability for the proposed new meeting/call time,the ICCPS 140 sends or communicates confirmatory messages to all of theinvitees and to the inviter indicating that the meeting/call isscheduled at the proposed new meeting/call time (1733). For example, ifthe inviter and all of the invitees affirmatively indicate that they areavailable from 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005, then the meeting/call isscheduled and confirmatory messages are communicated. The online serviceprovider 160 receives or is made aware of the confirmatory messages(1734) and sends or communicates the confirmatory messages and formatdata to computer systems associated with the invitees and with theinviter (1735). The computer systems associated with the invitees (e.g.,the call recipient computer systems 165, 170) and the computer system(or phone) associated with the inviter (not shown) receive or are madeaware of the confirmatory messages and format data (1736) and enabletheir respective users to perceive the confirmatory messages (1737).

If the stored availability data associated with the inviter and with allof the invitees does not indicate that the inviter and all of theinvitees are available during the proposed new meeting/call time, theICCPS determines whether the availability data associated with theinviter and with all of the invitees indicate a possibility of anoverlap of availability for the proposed new meeting/call time (1738).If the stored availability data indicate a possibility of an overlap ofavailability for the inviter and all invitees for the proposed newmeeting/call time, process 1700 proceeds to operation 1709 wherein newmeeting/call scheduling invitations are sent to only those users (i.e.,invitees and inviter) that have yet to specify availability orunavailability information for the proposed new meeting time (1739). Forexample, if the proposed new meeting/call time is 11 AM-12 PM on Oct.31, 2005 and the two of three invitees have affirmatively indicatedavailability at 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005 and the inviter and thethird invitee have not yet provided any information about his or heravailability at 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005, then a possibility existsthat the inviter and all three invitees will be available to participatein a meeting/call from 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005. In such asituation, the ICCPS 140 sends new meeting/call scheduling invitationsto the inviter and the third invitee to request their availability toparticipate in a meeting/call at 11 AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005. The ICCPS140 waits to receive an availability option selection and correspondingavailability data from the inviter and the third invitee beforedetermining whether or not the meeting may be scheduled at 11 AM-12 PMon Oct. 31, 2005.

If the stored availability data does not indicate a possibility of anoverlap of availability for the inviter and all invitees for theproposed new meeting/call time (1740), process 1700 proceeds tooperation 1741. For example, if the proposed new meeting/call time is 11AM-12 PM on Oct. 31, 2005, process 1700 proceeds to operation 1741 ifthe inviter or any one of the invitees has affirmatively indicated thatthey are unavailable during that time.

If the stored availability data does not indicate a possibility of anoverlap of availability for the inviter and all invitees for theproposed meeting/call time or, if applicable, for a proposed newmeeting/call time, the ICCPS 140 determines whether the availabilitydata associated with the inviter and with all of the invitees indicate apossibility of an overlap of availability for the duration of theproposed meeting/call for the proposed day (1741). For example, if theduration of the meeting is one hour on Oct. 31, 2005, the ICCPS 140determines whether the availability data for the inviter and inviteesshows an overlap of availability for at least one hour during the day ofOct. 31, 2005.

If the stored availability data indicate an overlap of availability forthe inviter and all invitees for the proposed meeting/call duration forthe proposed day (limited by the start time window), the ICCPS 140chooses the meeting start time to be the earliest or latest possibleavailable start time during the proposed day. The choice of start timeis determined based on the inviter meeting/call schedule setup optionselection. The ICCPS 140 sends or communicates confirmatory messages toall of the invitees and to the inviter indicating that the meeting/callis scheduled at the chosen meeting/call time (1742). For example, if theinviter and all of the invitees affirmatively indicate that they areavailable from 8 AM-9 AM and from 2 PM-4 PM on Oct. 31, 2005 and theinviter selected that the start time be as late as possible, then themeeting/call is scheduled at 3 PM-4 PM and confirmatory messages arecommunicated.

The online service provider 160 receives or is made aware of theconfirmatory messages (1743) and sends or communicates the confirmatorymessages and format data to computer systems associated with theinvitees and with the inviter (1744). The computer systems associatedwith the invitees (e.g., the call recipient computer systems 165, 170)and the computer system (or phone) associated with the inviter (notshown) receive or are made aware of the confirmatory messages and formatdata (1745) and enable their respective users to perceive theconfirmatory messages (1746).

If the stored availability data associated with the inviter and with allof the invitees does not indicate that the inviter and all of theinvitees are available for the proposed meeting/call duration during theproposed day, the ICCPS 140 determines whether the availability dataassociated with the inviter and with all of the invitees indicate apossibility of an overlap of availability for the proposed meeting/callduration during the proposed day (1747). If the stored availability dataindicate a possibility of an overlap of availability for the inviter andall invitees for the proposed meeting/call duration during the proposedday, the ICCPS 140 chooses the proposed meeting start time to be theearliest or latest possible potential start time during the proposedday. The choice of start time is determined based on the invitermeeting/call schedule setup option selection. Process 1700 then proceedsto operation 1709 wherein new meeting/call scheduling invitations aresent to only those users (i.e., invitees and/or inviter) that have yetto specify availability or unavailability information for the chosenpotential meeting time (1748). For example, if the inviter and two ofthe three invitees have affirmatively indicated availability from 8 AM-9AM and from 2 PM-4 PM on Oct. 31, 2005 and the third invitee has onlyaffirmatively indicated availability from 11 AM-12 PM, then apossibility exists that the inviter and all three invitees may be ableto participate in a meeting/call that takes place anytime between 8 AM-9AM and 2 PM-4 PM. If the inviter selected that the start time be as lateas possible, the ICCPS 140 chooses the potential meeting/call time to be3 PM-4 PM on Oct. 31, 2005. In such a situation, the ICCPS 140 sends anew meeting/call scheduling invitation to the third invitee to requesthis or her availability to participate in a meeting/call at 3 PM-4 PM onOct. 31, 2005. The ICCPS 140 waits to receive an availability optionselection and corresponding availability data from the third inviteebefore determining whether or not the meeting may be scheduled at 3 PM-4PM on Oct. 31, 2005.

If the stored availability data does not indicate a possibility of anoverlap of availability for the inviter and all invitees for theproposed meeting/call duration during the proposed day, the ICCPS 140informs the inviter that the meeting cannot be scheduled and enables theinviter to choose to either cancel the meeting/call, reschedule themeeting/call to an alternate day and time, or proceed with schedulingthe meeting/call at the current proposed time and day irrespective ofwhether all invitees can attend (1749). If the inviter proposes analternative day and time, process 1700 proceeds to operation 1709 tosend out new meeting/call scheduling invitations that present theproposed new alternative day and time. FIG. 22 shows an exemplary userinterface 2200 that informs the inviter that the meeting/call could notbe scheduled during the proposed day and enables the inviter to selectto cancel the meeting/call, reschedule the meeting/call to an alternateday and time, or proceed with scheduling the meeting/call at a proposedtime and day. Additionally or alternatively, the inviter may select toschedule the meeting/call at a start time during which the largestnumber of participants are concurrently available or during whichcertain inviter selected/specified participants are concurrentlyavailable.

In another implementation, the ICCPS 140 periodically provides theinviter with the current status of user responses to meeting/callscheduling invitations and enables the inviter to schedule, cancel, ormodify the meeting/call prior to completion of the scheduling process1700. FIG. 23 shows an exemplary user interface 2300 that shows thestatus of responses to meeting/call scheduling invitations and enablesthe inviter to cancel or modify the scheduling process. The userinterface 2300 displays a statement reflecting the current proposedmeeting/call time 2310, a list of potential participants and theircurrent response status 2320, and a set of option buttons 2330selectable to cancel the scheduling process 2332, short-circuit thescheduling process by choosing to schedule the meeting/call at theproposed time and day (or, in some implementations, anotherinviter-specified time and day) irrespective of the availability ofinvitees 2334, and cancel the scheduling process by choosing anothercommunity of interest 2336.

FIGS. 24(a)-24(f) are graphical representations of user availabilitydata as the data changes during an exemplary scheduling processinvolving an inviter identified as “Bob” and two invitees identified as“MarkUS5” and “devoPar.” In setting up the meeting, Bob has indicatedthat the start time window is 9 AM-5 PM, the start time preference is asearly as possible in the day, the duration of the meeting is one hour,the initial proposed start time is 10 AM, and the proposed day is Oct.31, 2005 (operation 1702). Bob chose a community of interest thatconsists of MarkUS5 and devoPar, both of which are online and availableto receive meeting scheduling invitations.

As shown in FIG. 24(a), when the meeting scheduling invitations areinitially sent out (operation 1709), the current proposed meeting timeis 10 AM-11 AM and the availability data for Bob 2402 indicate that heis available from 10 AM-11 AM. Bob did not provide any otheravailability data when he set up the meeting. The ICCPS 140 also doesnot have any availability data for MarkUS5 and devoPar at the time thatthe initial meeting scheduling invitations are sent out.

MarkUS5 responds to the meeting scheduling invitation by selecting anavailability option that indicates that he is not available during theproposed meeting time of 10 AM-11 AM but is available if the meeting isrescheduled to 11 AM-12 PM. The ICCPS 140 receives MarkUS5'savailability option selection and stores or updates his availabilitydata in accordance with the option selection (operation 1719). The ICCPS140 determines that the option selection does not accept the proposedmeeting time (i.e., 10 AM-11 AM) (operation 1720) and offers a newproposed meeting time (i.e., 11 AM-12 PM) (operation 1731). The storedavailability data at this point in the process is graphically shown inFIG. 24(b) and shows a possible availability overlap at 11 AM-12 PM(operation 1738). Accordingly, the ICCPS 140 sends out new meetingscheduling invitations to Bob (i.e., the inviter) and devoPar whereinthey are asked to respond to a new proposed meeting time of 11 AM-12 PM(operation 1739). In this example, devoPar did not get a chance torespond to the 10 AM-11 AM meeting scheduling invitation (i.e., themeeting scheduling invitation that proposes a meeting time of 10 AM-11AM) which is now automatically replaced by the 11 AM-12 PM meetingscheduling invitation.

Bob responds to the 11 AM-12 PM meeting scheduling invitation byselecting an availability option that indicates that he is not availableduring the proposed meeting time of 11 AM-12 PM but is available if themeeting is rescheduled to 12 PM-1 PM. The ICCPS 140 receives Bob'savailability option selection and updates his availability data inaccordance with the option selection (operation 1719). The ICCPS 140determines that the option selection does not accept the currentproposed meeting time (i.e., 11 AM-12 PM) (operation 1720) and insteadoffers a new proposed meeting time (i.e., 12 PM-1 PM) (operation 1731).The stored availability data at this point in the process is graphicallyshown in FIG. 24(c) and shows a possible availability overlap at 12 PM-1PM (operation 1738). Accordingly, the ICCPS 140 sends out new meetingscheduling invitations to MarkUS5 and devoPar wherein they are asked torespond to a new proposed meeting time of 12 PM-1 PM (operation 1739).In this example, devoPar did not get a chance to respond to the 11 AM-12PM meeting scheduling invitation which is now automatically replaced bythe 12 PM-1 PM meeting scheduling invitation.

MarkUS5 responds to the 12 PM-1 PM meeting scheduling invitation byselecting an availability option that indicates that he is availableduring the proposed meeting time of 12 PM-1 PM. The ICCPS 140 receivesMarkUS5's availability option selection and stores or updates hisavailability data in accordance with the option selection (operation1719). The ICCPS 140 determines that the option selection accepts theproposed meeting time (i.e., 12 PM-1 PM) (operation 1720). The storedavailability data at this point in the process is graphically shown inFIG. 24(d) and shows a possible availability overlap at 12 PM-1 PM(operation 1728). Accordingly, the ICCPS 140 waits on devoPar to respondto the 12 PM-1 PM meeting scheduling invitation. (operation 1729).

devoPar responds to the 12 PM-1 PM meeting scheduling invitation byselecting an availability option that indicates that he is available tomeet on the proposed day if calendar information specific to himindicates that he is available. The ICCPS 140 receives devoPar'savailability option selection, accesses his calendar information for theproposed day, and stores or updates his availability data in accordancewith his calendar information (operation 1719). The stored availabilitydata at this point in the process is graphically shown in FIG. 24(e) andshows that devoPar is available from 9 AM-11 AM, unavailable from 11AM-5 PM, and available from 5 PM-6 PM.

The availability option selection, therefore, does not correspond toaccepting the proposed meeting time of 12 PM-1 PM because thecorresponding availability data does not show availability from 12 PM-1PM (operation 1720). The availability option selection also does notcorrespond to proposing a new meeting time since no such new meetingtime was specifically proposed by devoPar (operation 1731). The ICCPS140, therefore, determines whether the stored availability data shows anoverlap of availability for Bob, MarkUS5, and devoPar for the one hourduration of the meeting (operation 1741). As shown in FIG. 24(e), nosuch availability overlap exists. The ICCPS 140 then determines whetherthe stored availability data shows the possibility of an overlap ofavailability for Bob, MarkUS5, and devoPar for the one hour duration ofthe meeting (operation 1747). As shown in FIG. 24(e), a possible overlapexists from 9 AM-10 AM and from 5 PM-6 PM. The ICCPS 140 chooses 9 AM-10AM as the new proposed meeting time per the setup option selected by Boband sends out new corresponding meeting scheduling invitations to Boband MarkUS5 (operation 1748).

MarkUS5 responds to the 9 AM-10 AM meeting scheduling invitation byselecting an availability option that indicates that he is availableduring the proposed meeting time of 9 AM-10 AM. The ICCPS 140 receivesMarkUS5's availability option selection and stores or updates hisavailability data in accordance with the option selection (operation1719). The ICCPS 140 determines that the option selection accepts theproposed meeting time (i.e., 9 AM-10 AM) (operation 1720). The storedavailability data at this point in the process is graphically shown inFIG. 24(f) and shows a possible availability overlap at 9 AM-10 AM(operation 1728). Accordingly, the ICCPS 140 waits on Bob to respond tothe 9 AM-10 AM meeting scheduling invitation. (operation 1729).

Bob responds to the 9 AM-10 AM meeting scheduling invitation byselecting an availability option that indicates that he is availableduring the proposed meeting time of 9 AM-10 AM. The ICCPS 140 receivesBob's availability option selection and stores or updates hisavailability data in accordance with the option selection (operation1719). The ICCPS 140 determines that the option selection accepts theproposed meeting time (i.e., 9 AM-10 AM) (operation 1720). The storedavailability data at this point in the process is graphically shown inFIG. 24(g) and shows an availability overlap at 9 AM-10 AM (operation1722). Accordingly, the ICCPS 140 sends out confirmatory messages toBob, MarkUS5, and devoPar indicating that the meeting has beensuccessfully scheduled for 9 AM-10 AM on Oct. 31, 2005 (operations1723-1727).

In some implementations, the availability data for users may be setupprior to any call or meeting scheduling and in lieu of responding tomeeting/call scheduling invitations. In these implementations, theavailability data is setup as a preference selection that may vary, forexample, by inviter or by community of interest. For example, someinvitees may indicate beforehand that they are always available orunavailable to participate in meetings/calls from certain inviters orthat involve certain communities of interest. Additionally oralternatively, they may indicate that they are always available if theircalendar permits to participate in meetings/calls from certain invitersor that involve certain communities of interest (or invitees).

A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it willbe understood that various modifications may be made. For example, thesystems and processes refer to a voice path and a signaling channel withrespect to the telephone network 130. In some implementations, the voicepath and the signaling channel are separated (i.e., out-of-bandsignaling). In other implementations, the voice path and the signalingchannel are integrated into one channel (i.e., in-band signaling) thathandles the transmission of audio data as well as the transmission ofcall handling data.

Prior to sending call notification messages, the ICCPS 140, 340 may senda message to the caller telephone device 110 that informs the caller ofthe online status of the call recipients in the community of interestthat was identified by the caller. The ICCPS 140, 340 may give thecaller the option to proceed with the conference call, cancel theconference call, or select another community of interest. If the callerselects to proceed with the conference call, then the ICCPS 140, 340 maysend out call notification messages as discussed above. FIG. 7 shows aprocess 700 that includes the operations of the process 200 but with theadditional operations 702-710 that enable the above-described functions.FIG. 8 shows a user interface 800 that informs the caller of the onlinestatus of the call recipients in the community of interest and promptsthe caller to select from among a set of option buttons to proceed withthe conference call, cancel the conference call, or select anothercommunity of interest.

In another implementation, the ICCPS 140, 340 may request the onlinestatus of user identities associated with the communities of interestfrom which the caller may select prior to prompting the caller to selector identify a community of interest. The pool of potential communitiesof interest or call recipients from which the caller may select may bereduced based on the determined online status of the identitiesassociated with the communities of interest. For example, if no useridentities in a give community of interest are online, then the calleris not allowed to select that community of interest.

Instead of making outbound calls (operation 258 in process 200 andoperations 466-469 of process 400), the ICCPS 140, 340 may sendconnection telephone numbers (and pass code identities) to the callrecipient computer systems 165, 170 associated with the call recipientsthat choose to participate in the call. The call recipient computersystems 165, 170 may display the connection telephone numbers (and passcode identity), and the call recipients may use the connection telephonenumbers to call into the ICCPS 140, 340 and to join the conference call(by inputting the pass code identity). Sending connection telephonenumbers (and pass code identities) may replace placing outbound callsfor one or more of the call recipients.

FIG. 9 shows a user interface 900 that provides the call recipient witha connection telephone number and a pass code identity usable by thecall recipient to participate in the conference call. User interface 900also may inform the call recipient of the amount of time that theconference call has been in progress and the expected duration of theconference call. Alternatively, the ICCPS 140, 340 may send connectiontelephone numbers (and pass code identities) regardless of whether thecall recipient has chosen to participate in the call. The call recipientmay use the connection telephone number to call the ICCPS 140, 340 andthereby accept the call via the act of calling in.

FIG. 10 shows a user interface 1000 similar to the user interface 900but directed to a call recipient that has chosen not to participate inthe conference call.

In yet another implementation, the conference call connection optionsmay include an option to access the conference call by dialing into theconference call manually. Upon selecting this option, a connectiontelephone number is displayed that may be used by the call recipient todial into the ICCPS 140, 340. FIG. 11 shows a user interface 1100 thatis similar to the user interface 500 but with an additional callconnection option to join the conference call by manually dialing in.

The conference call participation options may include an option torecord the conference call. Selecting the option to record theconference call results in the message transfer point 344 instructingthe IVRS 342 to establish a unidirectional voice path with theconference call system 348. The IVRS 342 receives the audio of theconference call through the unidirectional voice path and records theconference call as an audio file. The IVRS 342 sends the audio file tothe message transfer point 344. The message transfer point 344 accessesthe e-mail address of the potential call recipient that selected torecord the conference call. The e-mail address of the potential callrecipient may be stored as additional contact information in thecommunity data records. The message transfer point 344 may access thee-mail address by, for example, accessing the community data recordsstored in the configuration data store 346. The message transfer point344 may then send the audio file containing the conference callrecording as an attachment to an e-mail sent to the corresponding e-mailaddress. The message transfer point 344 also may send an updated callnotification message to all of the participants to inform them that theconference call is or will be recorded.

In another implementation, when a potential call recipient selects theoption to take the conference call, the potential call recipient may beprompted to input a telephone number to which the outbound call will beplaced by the ICCPS 140, 340. The potential call recipient may then jointhe conference call by answering the outbound call placed to thatspecified telephone number.

In yet another implementation, the potential call recipients may selectand submit audio messages that are queued up by the IVRS 342 and playedto the participants at the start of the conference call. The audiomessage may be predetermined and stored in an audio file at the callrecipient computer system 365, 370. Additionally or alternatively, theaudio message may be spoken by the potential call recipient and recordedin an audio file by the call recipient computer system 365, 370. Theaudio file may then be sent to the message transfer point 344 as part ofthe option selection of the potential call recipient. Additionally oralternatively, the option selection may include a pointer to the audiofile which is stored in a data store communicatively coupled to themessage transfer point 344. The message transfer point 344 receives orotherwise accesses the audio file and sends it or makes it available tothe IVRS 344. The IVRS 344 queues up any audio files received frommessage transfer point 344 and establishes a unidirectional voice pathwith the conference call system 348. Once the conference call isinitiated, the IVRS 344 may inform the participants of the number ofaudio messages sent by the potential call recipients and may thenconvert each audio file to audio and play sequentially or otherwise theaudio to the participants of the conference call.

In another implementation, the caller telephone device 110, 310 may be adata telephone and may call the ICCPS 140, 340 over the data network 150or over the Internet 350. The telephony gateway in the ICCPS 140 mayencode and decode voice data packets as necessary to enable the ICCPS140, 340 to provide the same functionality as described above.

The call notification user interface and the call recipient computersystems 165, 170 may allow a call recipient to send text messagesirrespective of whether the call recipient has selected a callparticipation option. In this implementation, the text message isunbundled from the conference call option selection of the callrecipient and enables the call recipient to exchange communications(e.g., chat) with other call recipients prior to or subsequent toselecting to participate in the call. The communication exchange may bein a separate standalone window (e.g., a chat window) or may bepresented to the other call recipients by the updated call notificationmessage (e.g., in the status section of a call notification window or inthe conference call participant status window). This communication bytext messages may be implemented in a manner similar to that used forestablishing chat rooms or for establishing multi-user Instant Messagingsessions. For example, the text messages sent by the call recipients maybe shown in the message column 650 and may be dynamically updated as newtext messages are sent. In contrast, the entries in the status column640 change only when the call recipient has selected a callparticipation option. FIG. 12 shows a user interface 1200 similar to theuser interface 600 but with an additional stand-alone chat window.

Alternatively, the text messages may be sent to the caller and/or to oneor more of the other call recipients as e-mails or as instant messages.For example, when a call recipient selects to not participate in aconference call, the call notification user interface and the callrecipient computer systems 165, 170 may enable the recipient to send aninstant message or an e-mail to the caller and/or to the other callrecipients. The e-mail or instant message may explain why the callrecipient is not able to participate in the conference call andoptionally when the call recipient will be available. FIG. 13 shows auser interface 1300 similar to the user interface 550 but with theoptions to send the message as an e-mail or as an instant message.

An updated call notification message also may be sent to a callercomputer system (not shown). The caller computer system may be astand-alone system or may be integrated with the caller telephone device110 as a single computer system. Upon receiving the updated callnotification message, the caller computer system may enable the callerto perceive a conference call participant status window. FIG. 14 shows auser interface 1400 that enables the caller to cancel or reschedule theconference call and to view the conference call participant status. Theuser interface 1400 also enables the caller to send text messages to theother call recipients. For example, the caller may use the interface1400 to send a text message to the call recipients to inform them thatthe conference call is going to be rescheduled due to, for example, theunavailability of certain call recipients and then may select the optionin the user interface 1400 to cancel the conference call. The userinterface 1400 allows this exchange of text messages via a chat window.

In another implementation, a conference call may be scheduled using acall waiting interface as described in U.S. application Ser. No.10/895,389, filed on Jul. 21, 2004, and titled CONFERENCE CALLS VIA ANINTELLIGENT CALL WAITING INTERFACE, hereby incorporated by reference. Inthis implementation, a caller may choose to schedule a conference callrather than proceed with a conference call upon being notified that lessthan all of the call recipients are available to take the call or,alternatively, certain specified call recipients are unavailable to takethe call.

Accordingly, other implementations are within the scope of the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method for electronicallyscheduling an online meeting, the method comprising: receiving one ormore requests from one or more users requesting to be associated with afirst group of users; in response to the one or more requests,associating the one or more users with the first group by linking aprofile or identifier of each of the users with a profile or identifierof the first group; receiving a meeting request from a first user deviceof a first user associated with the first group, the meeting requestincluding meeting setup information and identity information of thefirst user, the setup information including participation limited to theone or more users associated with the first group, the one or more usersassociated with the first group including a second user and a thirduser; receiving indication of a selected media file from the first userdevice of the first user, the selected media file configured to beplayed during the meeting; determining whether the second user and thethird user are associated with the first group; based on determiningthat the second and third user are associated with the first group,transmitting an invitation to a second user device of the second userand a third user device of the third user, the invitation including oneor more connection options; determining whether one of the second userand the third user are online awaiting participation in the meeting;based on determining that at least one of the second user and the thirduser is online awaiting participation in the meeting, connecting the atleast one of the second user and the third user by the one or moreconnection options; and transmitting the selected media file to at leastone of the second user device and the third user device to play duringthe meeting.
 2. The computer-implemented of claim 1, further comprising:wherein the selected media file includes an audio message.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the meeting setup information includes a topic ofthe meeting or a location of the meeting.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the meeting setup information includes a meeting duration. 5.The method of claim 1, further comprises: transmitting a pounce signalin order to determine whether one of the second user and the third userthat are online and available.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein asecond proposed meeting start time is determined by identifying a starttime in the range of potential meeting start times during which one ormore of the second user and the third user have not indicatedunavailability to participate in the meeting.
 7. The method of claim 6,wherein: the second proposed meeting start time is determined byidentifying multiple potential start times in the range of potentialmeeting start times during which the one or more of the second user andthe third user have not indicated unavailability to participate in themeeting; and identifying the second proposed meeting start time fromamong the multiple potential start times based on the preferencesspecified by the initiating user.
 8. A system for electronicallyscheduling an online meeting, the system comprising: a storage devicethat stores a set of instructions and at least one processor that isconfigured to execute the set of instructions for: receiving one or morerequests from one or more users requesting to be associated with a firstgroup of users; in response to the one or more requests, associating theone or more users with the first group by linking a profile oridentifier of each of the users with a profile or identifier of thefirst group; receiving a meeting request from a first user device of afirst user associated with the first group, the meeting requestincluding meeting setup information and identity information of thefirst user, the setup information including participation limited to theone or more users associated with the first group, the one or more usersassociated with the first group including a second user and a thirduser; receiving indication of a selected media file from the first userdevice of the first user, the selected media file configured to beplayed during the meeting; determining whether the second user and thethird user are associated with the first group; based on determiningthat the second and third user are associated with the first group,transmitting an invitation to a second user device of the second userand a third user device of the third user, the invitation including oneor more connection options; determining whether one of the second userand the third user are online awaiting participation in the meeting;based on determining that at least one of the second user and the thirduser is online awaiting participation in the meeting, connecting the atleast one of the second user and the third user by the one or moreconnection option; and transmitting the selected media file to at leastone of the second user device and the third user device to play duringthe meeting.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured for: wherein the selected media file includes an audiomessage.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the meeting setupinformation includes a topic of the meeting or a location of themeeting.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein the meeting setupinformation includes a meeting duration.
 12. The system of claim 8,wherein the processor is further configured for: transmitting a pouncesignal in order to determine whether one of the second user and thethird user that are online and available.
 13. The system of claim 8,wherein a second proposed meeting start time is determined byidentifying a start time in the range of potential meeting start timesduring which one or more of the second user and the third user have notindicated unavailability to participate in the meeting.
 14. The systemof claim 13, wherein: the second proposed meeting start time isdetermined by identifying multiple potential start times in the range ofpotential meeting start times during which the one or more of the seconduser and the third user have not indicated unavailability to participatein the meeting; and identifying the second proposed meeting start timefrom among the multiple potential start times based on the preferencesspecified by the initiating user.
 15. A non-transitory computer readablemedium encoded with instructions, which when executed by at least oneprocessor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:receiving one or more requests from one or more users requesting to beassociated with a first group of users; in response to the one or morerequests, associating the one or more users with the first group bylinking a profile or identifier of each of the users with a profile oridentifier of the first group; receiving a meeting request from a firstuser device of a first user associated with the first group, the meetingrequest including meeting setup information and identity information ofthe first user, the setup information including participation limited tothe one or more users associated with the first group, the one or moreusers associated with the first group including a second user and athird user; receiving indication of a selected media file from the firstuser device of the first user, the selected media file configured to beplayed during the meeting; determining whether the second user and thethird user are associated with the first group; based on determiningthat the second and third user are associated with the first group,transmitting an invitation to a second user device of the second userand a third user device of the third user, the invitation including oneor more connection options; determining whether one of the second userand the third user are online awaiting participation in the meeting;based on determining that at least one of the second user and the thirduser is online awaiting participation in the meeting, connecting the atleast one of the second user and the third user by the one or moreconnection options; and transmitting the selected media file to at leastone of the second user device and the third user device to play duringthe meeting.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim15, further comprising: receiving, from one or more of the second userand the third user, a selection or submission of a recorded audiomessage configured to be queued and played during the multiple partymeeting.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15,wherein the meeting setup information includes a topic of the meeting ora location of the meeting.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 15, wherein the meeting setup information includes thefirst proposed meeting schedule that includes a meeting duration. 19.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, furthercomprises: transmitting a pounce signal in order to determine whetherone of the second user and the third user that are online and available.20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein asecond proposed meeting start time is determined by identifying a starttime in the range of potential meeting start times during which one ormore of the second user and the third user have not indicatedunavailability to participate in the meeting.